The Spirit XFactor
by Son Kenshin
Summary: Walk on the Wild Side Part 2 is up, please read and review, I worked really hard on it.
1. Old Friends

The Spirit X-Factor

_Prologue: Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei had just won the Dark Tournament on Hangman Island. After fighting many teams of powerful demons, Team Urameshi, after loosing Master Genkai, fought Team Toguro in the final round. All of the members of Team Urameshi, even their friends and in Kuwabara's and Hiei's case, sister, were pushed to their limits when the Younger Toguro went 100 during his battle with Yusuke. After sucking the souls of many of the demon spectators, and finally faking the death of Kuwabara, Yusuke's hidden powers were brought out. He faced Toguro evenly, even when he went 120. The Spirit Detective fired one last Spirit Gun, with all of his energy in it. Toguro, after Yusuke collapsed, admitted defeat when his demon muscles blew off, and his body turned to stone. After Sakyo, the man who owned Team Toguro, and who wanted to open a gate between the Demon World and the Human World lost his bet of life to Koenma, he blew up the stadium, as well as himself and his research. For Yusuke's wish, Genkai was resurrected, to continue her pupil's training._

_In Bayville, the young Mutants had just begun their second year at Bayville High. There were a group of new mutants in the mansion now, who weren't ready to become X-Men. Professor Xavier then got a telepathic message from an old friend, who he met over in Japan long ago…_

Chapter 1: Memories and old Friends

The X-Jet soared over the Pacific Ocean, heading towards Japan. Professor Charles Xavier was meeting with an old friend, and Logan, Hank, and Ororo with him, while the other X-Men stayed back at the mansion.

"Who are we going to see, Professor?" Ororo, the African American women with white hair asked.

"To see one of my old friends, Storm, she is a psychic, who also has strong fighting powers and can manipulate her energy," the man in the wheel chair, Professor Charles Xavier replied, remembering when he first met her, "It was over 40 years ago, I still was able to walk, and had begun to travel the world…"

_Xavier recalled his journey to Japan…where he met many strange and interesting people. He had just learned to harness his mutant abilities, and passed through the crowds of Tokyo. The younger Charles then looked around, sensing something, and a powerful, but feminine voice called out to him…_

_'Come with me, if you want to learn more about your abilities…' the voice offered, and Charles turned around, '…Don't worry, I am no enemy…'_

_'Who are you?' Charles asked, turning around as people rushed by him on the crowded sidewalk, then he saw a short, good looking woman standing top of a two story, 'You're talking to me?'_

_'Yes, now please, follow me to my refuge…' the woman urged, and she hopped down with ease from the two story building, 'Quickly…there is much to discuss…'_

_Charles then followed the young woman, passing many people on the way. She was running out of the city, and into the suburbs._

_'How much longer until we get to where you're running to?' Xavier asked as the woman up ahead of him as he continued running after her._

_'We'll be reaching the stairs soon,' the woman replied, completely out of breath, 'I hope you're not exhausted already…'_

_'No…' Xavier retorted as the woman turned around, and he stopped, 'First, tell me who you are…'_

_'As you wish…' the woman said telepathically, "My name is Genkai. Now, we must hurry to my sanctuary, Charles Xavier, and we must hurry or the assassins might get you."_

_"Assassins? Why? What do they want from me?" _

_"They are sent by lords in the demon world, and they fear what you might become," Genkai explained, making sure no one heard them, '…the powerful demon lords fear what you might become, now we must hurry to my sanctuary to discuss this further.'_

_'Alright, lead the way,' Xavier told her, and he followed Genkai towards the forest, and followed a pathway to a staircase that was covered in talismans._

_After admiring the entrance, he was urged by Genkai to keep following him. She kept checking behind them while walking up to a Buddhist or Taoist shrine. Xavier was puzzled by the young woman's cautiousness, but when they entered the shrine, she breathed a sigh of relief._

_"Now, why have you brought me here Genkai?" Xavier asked, "And what are these Demon Lords you spoke of?"_

_"They rule the Four Saint Beasts plane, and have been trying to escape to the living, human world ever since they were banished and put under a barrier by King Enma, the ruler of the Spirit World," Genkai explained as she sipped her tea, "The Four Demon Gods are Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, and Suzaku. They are powerful, yet they fear the human race, and want to conquer it. Yet, they fear powerful individuals like you and me."_

_"Why would they fear me?"_

_"Because, Charles Xavier, you are a mutant," Genkai stated, looking at him in the eye, "A new breed of human would make their plans of conquest more difficult. And you happen to be a mutant. Right now, you are an above average psychic, but they probably fear you can grow even more powerful."_

_"They want to kill me because they fear what I could become?" Xavier asked, puzzled, "And why are you telling me this? What do you know Genkai?"_

_"I am telling you this because I am concerned for our world," Genkai stated, trying to keep herself calm, "I too am a psychic, and now I am above you in power."_

_Genkai got off her pillow, and walked towards a window. Her pink hair wafted in the wind, and she looked out towards the forest. Xavier was captivated; he hadn't seen such a vision of beauty in a long time…._

_"Ten years ago, my team and I won something called the Dark Tournament," Genkai explained, looking out towards the setting sun, "I chose to abandon the man I loved, since he chose the wrong path for his prize for winning the Dark Tournament…"_

_"What was that prize?" Xavier asked, becoming intrigued by Genkai's story._

_"He, and his older brother, abandoned me and our other teammates. He never wanted to show weakness again, so he chose to become…"_

_"Become what…?"_

_"A **demon** of the highest class, so he could become a immortal, he never wanted to lose his strength again…" Genkai finished somberly, trying to hold back the tears, "I…and my other teammates chose solitude and requested that we wouldn't participate in the next tournament…"_

_"I…am sorry for your loss; you must have really loved him…" Xavier walked over to her, and he put his hand on her shoulder._

_An evil cackle sounded from the doorway, and both of them turned to see a weird looking humanoid creature. He had a black ninja costume, and two horns coming out of his temples. This strange creature had night black skin, and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth._

_"How cute…"_

_"Who are you?" Xavier asked, and he stepped back, "**What **are you?"_

_"He is one of the demon assassins I told you about, Charles," Genkai told him, and she prepared to fight, "How did you get passed the talismans?"_

_"Those weak pieces of paper are nothing to me," the demon replied, and claws jutted out of his fingers._

_"Oh, you're not a normal demon are you? Well, I hope you are prepared to die," Genkai warned him, "I am the master of Reidoha, the Spirit Wave, so I suggest you leave quietly."_

_"You are the master of the Spirit Wave? A shrimp like you can't be Master Genkai," the demon snarled, "Enough tricks, Xavier will die for my masters…"_

_The demonic assassin charged her with his claws drawn. Genkai sunk lower and her body began to glow. Xavier gasped and blocked his eyes as Genkai's aura grew and it shot out a blast that incinerated the demon assassin._

_"Wh-What…was that?" Xavier asked, stunned at what he had just seen._

_"It was the Reidoha, my Spirit Wave. It is my most powerful technique, and it channels my psychic energy and my spirit energy through my entire body, and unleashes it in one powerful blast. I can control how strong I want it to be."_

_"Whoa…this 'Spirit Wave' of yours sounds incredible," Xavier said, amazed, and he walked over to her, "It was a honor to meet you, I have to leave for America in a month…"_

_"You can stay here, and I can help you with your psychic abilities, help you hone them so you can protect yourself from the Four Saint Beast's men," Genkai offered, and he agreed._

"…So that's how I met Genkai," Xavier finished as Beast landed the X-Jet in the surrounding field of Genkai's shrine.

"It seems you two became close," Storm speculated, and Xavier nodded.

"We did…" Xavier told her, remembering before he departed, Genkai gave him a farewell kiss.

"Well, we're here now, professor," Logan informed him, as the hatch opened slowly, "Something doesn't smell right…"

"It's okay Logan," Xavier told him as he guided his electric wheelchair down the ramp, "It is just the Cursed Forest."

"Cursed Forest, I don't like the sound of that…" Logan said cautiously, preparing to let his claws out at any second.

"Um, Professor, why is it called the Cursed Forest anyway?" Hank asked as he walked down the ramp.

"It is called that since it is a very old, ancient forest that is inhabited by spiritual and demonic creatures. Don't worry, they can't get beyond the talismans that Genkai placed around her temple," Xavier replied, as he wheeled himself down the stone road toward Genkai's place, "Genkai, we're here now, what did you want to see us for?"

No answer came out of the temple. Ororo, Hank, and Logan surrounded him, and he put his hands to his temples.

'Genkai, I can sense you hear, why don't you come to see us?'

'I'm busy at the moment, come back later…'

Xavier almost fell out of his seat because of that, 'You told me it was urgent, why did you want me to come?'

'Fine, fine, I'm coming out…'

After a few seconds, Genkai walked out the front door of her temple, with the sounds of her arcade ringing out into the open. She shut the sliding door, and walked down to greet her guests. She had grown old, yet still retained her pink hair.

"This old woman is the famous Genkai you told us about, Professor?" Logan asked, unconvinced that she was the woman Xavier told them about.

"Who's the brash animal you brought with you? He seems dumber than the dimwit, but doesn't have that wall of crap around him," Genkai asked, "And you're a professor now…good job."

Logan growled, trying to intimidate Genkai, 'I am not an animal! Wall of crap, what does she mean?'

"And you have changed too, it is very nice to see you again. Now what do you want to discuss with me?"

"My dimwit apprentice, so please, come in…" Genkai replied to him, then she looked at Hank, and grinned, "Hope he doesn't shed."

Xavier and Hank chuckled, both knowing it was a good humor joke. Using her powers, Ororo levitated Professor Xavier's wheelchair with a whirlwind, which put it up onto the top step. Genkai opened the door, letting her guests in. Logan growled, and entered the temple.

"That's a pretty nice gift you have there, controlling the weather," Genkai commented Ororo's powers, "You could have given Jin, Touya, and those other demons quite a run for their money in the Dark Tournament this year."

"Demons, Dark Tournament, you went?" Xavier asked, remembering when he first met Genkai, "You said you wouldn't enter this year."

"It seems that I had no choice. Toguro seemed to have taken a liken to my apprentice, that dimwit," Genkai explained to him, "I also tried to settle the score with my old love, and failed. I gave Yusuke my Spirit Wave Orb to beat Toguro, but it wasn't enough. Only threw faking Yusuke's, my apprentice, friend's death, he was able to beat Toguro."

"It sounds like you had a pretty tough ordeal, but, if Toguro defeated you, why are you talking to us now, in physical form?" Hank asked, pretty perplexed on why Genkai still lived, "Did Toguro beat you, or kill you?"

"Both," Genkai stated nonchalantly, "But Yusuke's wish for winning the Tournament was my resurrection."

"Now, is this why you wanted to see me after all this time, Genkai?" Xavier asked, and she nodded.

"I think the dimwit and his friends would like to come to America for schooling from you, since I have heard of Magneto," Genkai stated, and she walked to the window, "I also sense that there may be another enemy on the way, and Yusuke will need all the preparation for this."

"So you want us to pick up some punk kid? No problem, just hope he doesn't have an attitude…" Logan growled, remembering how much Evan and sometimes Scott cop an attitude against him.

"This 'punk' happens to have all of my strength and powers now, just play nicely with the dimwit…" Genkai warned him playfully, but gave him a stare that made Logan check to see if his healing factor was still active.

"Where can we find this boy and his friends?" Xavier asked, trying to get back to topic.

"You can find the dimwit, Yusuke Urameshi, his friend Kazuma Kuwabara, and the dimwit's girlfriend, Keiko Yukimura, all go to Sarayashiki Junior High, and, the other one, Kurama, who goes by the name Shuichi Minamino, who goes to Sarayashiki Senior High," Genkai told them, "Yusuke is a kid with black hair who always wears a green uniform, opposite of the school's uniform. Kuwabara wears his school uniform, but he is tall, and has orange hair. Keiko has brown hair and wears the traditional uniform that her school produces. Kurama wears a pink uniform and has green eyes and red hair, you can't miss him."

"Thank you for your information, I…hope to see you again," Xavier said as he and his followers bowed to Genkai.

"You'll be seeing me sooner than you think, Charles," Genkai told him, and smiled, "Because, I want to oversee Yusuke's training in America. Oh, you might also want to get Kuwabara's sister, Shizuru, since she has psychic abilities and a powerful sixth sense."

"Doc, can we get out of here?" Logan asked, starting to get anxious, "Let's just get the punks and go home."

"I assume the Professor would like a few moments alone with Genkai, they do have a lot to catch up on you know," Hank suggested, seeing the two old lovers, "We'll go wait in the X-Jet."

"I agree," Ororo nodded in agreement, and they both dragged Logan out of the temple so Genkai and Xavier could catch up.

BAYVILLE

Back in Bayville, Jean was returning from her latest date with the football star Duncan Matthews. The Professor and the other adults were not back yet, so Jean and Scott were in charge of the new mutants and other X-Men. Kitty, Kurt, and Evan were all in the living room. Evan had brought out his Playstation 2, and he and Kurt were playing Grand Tourismo 3, and Kitty was recording the score so far. Jean walked into the room, looking for Scott.

"Hey, guys, where's Scott?" Jean asked, not getting any response from Kurt and Evan.

"Scott wanted to work on his car, so Rogue went down to help him out," Kitty told her, watching as Evan took the lead in the race.

"Yes!" Evan cheered, as he kept going into turbo on the game, completely beating Kurt to the finish line, "Take that Kurt, 3 to 2!"

"One more race!" Kurt pleaded in his German accent, "Vhet's play again!"

"All right, all right!" Evan gave into Kurt's pleads, "One more game, then I got to do homework alright? I know you already have done yours, but I have a test tomorrow and Aunt Ororo and Hank have been really getting on my case lately!"

Jean smirked and began to walk to the garage. When she arrived in the garage, Scott was under the hood of his car, and Rogue was handing him wrenches and other tools.

"Hey guys," Jean said cheerfully, making Scott rise up so fast, he hit the hood of the car, "Ouch, that looked like it hurt Scott."

Jean tried to cover a laugh, Rogue just smirked. She was having fun helping out Scott, he always forgot to come up slowly when reaching for a tool. Scott blushed, and rubbed his head.

"Yeah, it hurt…" Scott said, while rubbing his head, "Rogue, I think we're done for today."

"Right…" Rogue thought, as she walked over to put the hood down, "Thanks for letting meh help ya."

"No problem, I was actually surprised how much you knew about car engines and starters," Scott complimented, and Rogue starting walking up the stairs, "You'll be the first person I call when I have car trouble, okay?"

"Yeah…thanks…" Rogue then walked up the stairs, leaving Jean and Scott alone.

"So, uh, how was your date?" Scott asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Good, good. Yet, Duncan seems to be getting grabbier now…" Jean then saw the look of anger on Scott's face, "It's okay, I handled it."

"Okay," Scott gave in, "But, if he ever does it again…"

"I know, you'll come to my rescue…" Jean sighed, then she smiled, "I'll see you later, Scott."

"Yeah…right…" Scott said as he watched the girl of his dreams walk away from him, again, 'Stupid, stupid!'

Jean just smirked after hearing what Scott thought, and she went to her room.


	2. Normal Life and Departure

Chapter 2: Normal Life? And Departure

In an apartment of downtown Tokyo, there was a buzzer ringing in a medium size room. A teenage boy, no older than 14 or 15 slammed his hand onto his digital clock. Sleepily, he pulled himself out of bed, and yawned.

'Great…two weeks after the freaking Dark Tournament and I have to go back to freaking school…' he thought, wiping his eye, "Damn, I hate Mondays…"

This teenager was Yusuke Urameshi, the young man who won the Dark Tournament. Life had become almost normal for him, well, if you call having an alcoholic clueless mother, spiritual powers, no father figure and demons for friends normal that is. He walked out of his room and out into the kitchen, where his mother was still in deep sleep.

'Man, great mom, where's my breakfast?' Yusuke thought as he tip toed to the cabinets, 'Good, there are at least some **good** cereals left…'

He took out a bowl of Honeycombs, and poured it into the bowl. He tried to do it as quietly as he could so he wouldn't wake up his mother. He poured milk into the bowl, and walked into the living room. He turned on the television, and watched a bit of the news; he wanted to check up on the sports.

After finishing eating, he went into the bathroom for a shower. He still had all the cuts, bruises, and scratch marks he received from Toguro. Some were still a little sore, but he could manage. After cleaning himself, he brushed his teeth and walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, and he saw his mother.

"Good…morning Yusuke…" Mrs. Urameshi yawned deeply, and she rubbed her eyes, "Oh…that's right, you have school today…"

"That's only because Keiko's making me go!" Yusuke retorted, never liking school because of the abusive teachers. The only teacher he respected at Sarayashiki Junior High was Mr. Takanaka, 'Man, someday, I'm going to beat down Mr. Iwamoto and Mr. Akashi someday…'

After changing into his green jumpsuit (the wrong uniform for his school), he went to his mom.

"Don't you have a job interview today?" he asked, taking a drink of milk from the carton.

"Oh…yeah…thanks for reminding me Yusuke, I don't know what I'd do without you…"

"Go on endless drinking binges with your cross-dressing friends?" Yusuke joked, and his mother blushed, "Well, I'm off for another day of hell…"

Yusuke walked out the door, leaving his mother to her thoughts.

'Yusuke seems to be getting more responsible lately…' she thought, watching her son walk down the hall toward the elevator, '…must be something in the water…'

Yusuke met Kuwabara and Keiko on the road, and they began walking towards Sarayashiki Junior High. Yusuke yawned, and then gazed down to the ground.

"Aw, I'm beat! Since we got back, all I've felt like doing is watching stupid daytime television," Yusuke said to his two friends.

"It's such a pretty day too, doesn't feel right to be locked up in school," Kuwabara added as he followed Yusuke.

"Uh oh, I think I just got sick," Yusuke chimed in, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Me too, I heard the arcade has medicine," Kuwabara said as he walked up to his friend.

"I guess we'll just have to go then-OW!" Keiko slammed Yusuke over the head with her book bag, "Hey! What was that for?"

"Don't even think of skipping school. You're mom had to do a lot of convincing so they wouldn't fail you this year," Keiko told him, her bag still hovering over his head.

"Guy saves the world, and still has to do algebra, makes sense," Yusuke growled as he walked off.

"Yes, it does…" Keiko said as she followed him.

They then saw a group of thugs tormenting a couple.

"Hey, nice little girlfriend here!"

"Show us how you kiss her!"

"Didn't know the low lives come out this time of day," Kuwabara said, extremely annoyed.

"Oo, look at what we have here, this girl has two boyfriends," and the one with the shaved head and sunglasses snickered, "Got room for a third, honey?"

He then got a look into Yusuke's eyes, and stood there speechless, like he was frozen in terror.

"What's the deal, they're just kids!" the leader of the thugs pushed his way to the front, but he got a look at Yusuke's angry expression.

"Let's not fight okay, Yusuke?" Keiko asked, as she clutched Yusuke's spirit beast, Puu, in her arms.

"Sure…" Yusuke said as he started walking threw the thugs, and they made their way for him.

"Yeah, they're not men," Kuwabara added as he and Keiko walked threw the crowd of thugs.

In a nearby café, Professor Xavier, Hank who had his holo-watch on, Logan, and Ororo watched what had just transpired.

"I guess that punk in the green suit is Yusuke…" Logan said as he drank some sake.

"Seems to be…" Hank said, taking a sip of his green tea since he never drank alcohol.

"Hurry, we must get to his school," Xavier told them, as he left the yen on the counter for the drink, and he wheeled himself out followed by Logan, Hank, and Ororo.

By the time lunch came around, Professor Xavier had started talking to Mr. Takanaka, with his three followers. The two assistant principals were in the room, for they have heard of the famous Charles Xavier.

"I have been told you're Professor Xavier, it is an honor to meet you," Takanaka bowed in respect to Charles, and he did the same, "What brings you to Sarayashiki?"

"I have come seeking gifted students to join my school," Xavier told him, after he bowed to the head principle, "My sources tell me that there are three gifted students here, Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, and Keiko Yukimura."

"What?" one of the assistant principals, Mr. Iwamoto yelled, "You want Urameshi and Kuwabara to join your school?"

"That source of yours has to be mistaken! I can understand Yukimura, but not Urameshi and Kuwabara!" the other, shorter, buck toothed assistant principal, Mr. Akashi yelled, as he and Iwamoto walked forward, "You cannot be serious."

"Our source has a gift of knowing potential, and those two boys have plenty of it," Hank interjected, and the two assistant principals looked over to him, "From what we've been told, given the right teachers, those two would do really well."

"What? Are you insulting us?" Iwamoto growled, testing Logan's patience.

"I wasn't addressing you, Mr. Iwamoto. Do you have something to hide?" Hank asked, smirking slightly.

"You…"

"Hank McCoy here is one of the best teachers at the institute," Xavier said to Takanaka, "Other than getting schooling at the institute, the students also go to normal public school. Yusuke, Kazuma, and Keiko are all old enough to start freshmen year at Bayville High School."

"It would give your school more credits if you send three students to the Institute you know," Hank added casually, and he glanced at Iwamoto and Akashi.

"What would you know of good schooling, Mr. McCoy?" Iwamoto berated, "Those two punks aren't even fit to go to elementary school!"

"You seem to have a personal vendetta against both of them," Hank said, they're eyes making contact, "Good teachers don't judge who is fit to teach. They pass on their knowledge, no matter who the person is. A good teacher likes all kids, no matter what lot of life they're in, and if they're in a rut, they help out their students, not let them fail."

Logan smirked, he rarely got to see Hank getting pissed off, 'He really is passionate about teaching…hm, Iwamoto looks familiar…"

Before a fight could break out between Iwamoto and Hank, Takanaka stopped his assistant.

"Mr. Iwamoto, you are in no position to know who is a good student or not," Takanaka told him, reaching into his desk for something, "You and Mr. Akashi here have been abusing your power as educators."

"I can see why those two boys don't like school…" Xavier said after he did a brief mind scan of the two assistant principals.

Mr. Takanaka then pulled out two slips; both of the pink color, "And, after hearing Mr. McCoy's speech on what a good teacher is, you don't even deserve to work at this school."

Mr. Akashi and Mr. Iwamoto went speechless, as their boss started filling out the pink slips, which were firing forms.

"M….Mr. Takanaka, you can't be serious," Mr. Akashi trembled, as he looked as his name was entered onto the first slip.

"You have no right to talk, Mr. Akashi," Takanaka told him, "You have been on the edge of a knife ever since you tried to cheat Kuwabara out of his friend's job. Once more, you forbade him from defending himself, which is another offense. You have no business being here, so please empty your locker, and get out of my office."

Mr. Iwamoto then looked on, his rage at Takanaka growing. He was part of the famous Iwamoto clan, and it would be sacrilege of him being fired from such a prestigious school.

"You…can't do this, Takanaka…" Iwamoto growled, as he watched Mr. Takanaka finish filling out his pink slip, "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, but your family line doesn't excuse your abuse of power, Mr. Iwamoto," Takanaka replied sternly, and he handed his former colleague, "Now, please, leave this school. Maintain what is left of your dignity, and never go into teaching again."

Iwamoto snapped, and he charged both Xavier and Takanaka. He wouldn't be insulted, he wouldn't give up his post of assistant principal of Sarayashiki Junior High, and he threw out his fists at both of them.

"I was saving this for Yusuke, but you two bastards will do!" Mr. Iwamoto roared, preparing to beat down his former employer.

Logan then leapt out of his seat, tackling Iwamoto, and they both rolled on the ground violently.

"Get a hold of yourself, bub!" Logan warned as he quickly overpowered the former teacher, and raised his hand over his head, "Stop this, or do you want to end up like your father?"

That hit home, and Iwamoto stopped thrashing.

"How…how do you…know of my…father?" Iwamoto asked, speechless.

"My father met him at the end of World War II, your father was an evil man without honor, and you're turning out exactly like him," Logan told him, not revealing the fact that he actually fought Iwamoto's father in the ending days of World War II, "Now please, leave this school with your dignity."

Iwamoto agreed to that, and got his things. He knew his father, a crook, a former soldier, the very man who beat him and his mother. He had turned out exactly like him, and it horrified him.

'Nice job controlling your rage, Logan,' Xavier congratulated his friend telepathically, 'I am surprised you didn't pull out your claws…'

'We are in a normal school; after all, I just gave him a good fright.'

"Thank you Mr. Logan," Takanaka bowed to the man who protected him from Iwamoto's assault, "Now, to get Yusuke, Kazuma, and Keiko up here, please, wait a minute."

In Mr. Takanaka's classroom, Kuwabara and his gang had sat down to lunch. Kuwabara had began eating a sub sandwich, while his gang were eating out of sushi and rice boxes.

"You know Kuwabara, the punks from the other junior highs are too afraid to really mess with us anymore," Okubo told the gang's leader, Kuwabara, while eating some rice.

"Feels good to be king, doesn't it?" Komada asked, and he drank some milk.

"Yeah…" Kuwabara replied, not sounding like he was happy about it.

"We got to push on their turf now!" Kirishima shouted, getting out of his seat, "We could rule the whole city! Just like you always wanted, Kuwabara!"

"Forget it you guys. We got our peace, and we should be enjoying it" Kuwabara asked as he got out of his seat, and looked into a nearby window, "There is a lot more to life than just shoving punks into the pavement."

"We shouldn't let him go onto these long vacations anymore," Komada said as he turned to the other members.

"He's changed…" Kirishima added, putting down his food.

"It's probably because that girl dumped him again…" Okubo said to them.

'Yukina, my sweet love, that's twice now that we had to go to our separate worlds, but I know someday, we'll be together for good, until that day, I'll try to be a better man…' Kuwabara thought, looking up into the sky, not noticing Yusuke, smirking mischievously, and he bent down.

He put both hands together, with the index fingers point out, and then jammed them into Kuwabara's butt, "Spirit gun!" and then he went back into full upright position, "Next time your going to be daydreaming, make sure you pack a rearview mirror."

Kuwabara shrieked, the pain was excruciating, and he put his hand on his back, "You punk! That's not the feeling I was going for!"

"I don't know, you looked were busting your balls on something to me, now share your lunch, I'm starved," Yusuke grinned, trying to make his assault sound like a prank.

"_Hmph!_ The nerve! Assault me then ask me for a meal?" Kuwabara asked, annoyed, "You're not getting squat!"

"That's how you treat a guy who won the Dark Tournament?" Yusuke retorted, "'Thanks for saving my life pal, but my sandwich is just too damned good!'"

"Don't try with the guilt trips Urameshi! My manly powers are what carried us threw the tournament! When have you ever saved me?" Kuwabara berated, getting more and more annoyed.

Before a fight could break out, Mr. Takanaka appeared at the door, "Mr. Urameshi, Mr. Kuwabara, please, come with me to my office."

"Uh, okay…" they both said and then followed the head principal to Keiko's classroom.

"Miss Yukimura, please come with me," Mr. Takanaka asked, and she nodded and gathered her books and Puu.

"Whoa, looks like Keiko's in trouble for something…" Kuwabara whispered into Yusuke's ear.

"Impossible, Keiko never gets in trouble, that's my gig!" Yusuke whispered back, and they continued following Mr. Takanaka to his office.

When they arrived, they saw four people in the room. One was bald and in a wheelchair, one was African-American with white hair, one had a muscular built with glasses on, and one had wild hair growing out of his head that made it look like a lion's mane.

"Who are they?" Yusuke asked, a little confused.

"They are from the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, and they want you three to join in their school in Bayville, New York," Mr. Takanaka replied, "And this is the curator and founder of the Institute, Professor Charles Xavier."

"Hey, I've heard of you," Keiko said in an enlightened voice, "You're the famous geneticist and Oxford graduate!"

"I'm surprise you've heard of me, it's a pleasure to meet you three," the Professor greeted the three extraordinary students, "These are my colleagues, Henry McCoy, Ororo Monroe, and Logan."

"Professor Xavier sees great things in you three," Mr. Takanaka said, smiling, "And I agree with him, but it's your choice to go to his school in America and his school."

"Whoa, that's pretty heavy Mr. Takanaka…" Yusuke said, as he looked around, "Where are the two 'teachers of the year'?"

"Fired," Mr. Takanaka replied bluntly, "I'll start looking for replacements tomorrow."

"What? You fired them, seriously?" Yusuke and Kuwabara asked, their faces lighting up in joy.

"Mr. McCoy here reminded me what teaching was all about, the students. They weren't here for the students, they were here for the school's reputation," Mr. Takanaka explained, "Everyone, no matter who their parents are, or how much money they have, deserves a good education."

"Now, onto the business at hand, do you three want to go to my school?" the Professor asked, putting his fingers together, "You would get public schooling of course-!"

"Now wait a minute, we would still have to go to regular school?" Yusuke asked, starting to doubt if he wanted to go to the school.

"Yes, but trust me Yusuke, it's much different than schooling here in Japan," Hank interjected, "At the Institute, you are taught how to harness your gifts to their full advantage, but, you would be taught how to do math, English, history, etc, so you could have a good life in the real world. Plus, you three would be starting out in High School."

"High school?" all three of them asked, and Xavier nodded.

"Trust me, you would like it," the Professor told them cheerfully, "Of course, you would be starting as freshmen, but many of our students at the Institute are freshmen."

"Well, I'm convinced," Kuwabara said, folding his arms to prove his decision, "I want to go to your school."

"It sounds fun, I'm sure I'll like the challenge," Keiko said as she shook the Professor's hand.

After some deliberation, Yusuke made his decision, "Alright, if you guys are going, then me too."

"Excellent," the Professor exclaimed, "Mr. Takanaka, will you please leave us alone for a half and hour? These three have to fill out some forms, and we'll talk about the courses that they will be doing."

"Of course," Mr. Takanaka replied, and he walked for the door, "Fill free to call me back in when you're done."

Mr. Takanaka closed the door, and walked down to his classroom, since he was also a teacher.

"Now, time for you to know the true purpose of the Institute," Professor Xavier started, and Hank reached for his watch and turned it off.

"WHAT?" All three of them yelled, as they saw Hank McCoy's true form, a being with blue fur and hair, "I…Is he a demon?" Keiko asked, and her two friends shook their head.

"He…doesn't have a demonic aura…" Yusuke replied, and Hank smiled.

"Don't worry; I'm not a demon," Hank told them calmly, "I'm just a mutant, like Ororo, Logan, and even the Professor here."

"Mutant?" all three of them asked, a bit confused.

"Let me explain, there are humans who are born with extraordinary abilities. Hank has super human strength and agility, to go along with his brilliant mind," the Professor explained, "Ororo here has the ability to control the weather, she can control wind, rain, snow, heat, fog, etc., but she also has claustrophobia. Logan here has super human strength and agility, plus he has a high degree healing factor. And I have telepathy, telekinesis, and mind reading powers. I am the most powerful psychic on Earth right now."

"Yeah," Logan formed a fist, making three very sharp claws rise out of his knuckles, "Plus, I also have this adamantium skeleton…"

"Uh…" Keiko started, and Logan smirked.

"Don't ask," Logan said to her, "I can't recall it all myself."

"S…s…so all the…people at the school…are mutants?" Kuwabara asked, getting a bit nervous.

"Yes, and we believe, even you Keiko, have mutant abilities," the Professor replied, "Yusuke, your master Genkai contacted me telepathically, you see, her and I are old friends, and she wanted to tell me about her disciple, you, and your friends. She told me about you winning the Dark Tournament, and we thought you would like to come to the Institute, since you deserve a normal life. We can help you harness your powers, and control them better."

"We are also picking up your friend, Shuichi, also known as Kurama, from the senior high," Hank told them.

"Well, I'm sold," Yusuke smirked, "I'm tired of this school, so I'll give yours a shot. Plus, the students will probably be grateful that you got Iwamoto and Akashi fired, so you're in my debt for that."

"Well, if Urameshi's going, then I am too!" Kuwabara added, "Maybe I'll be able to get my spirit power back!"

"I…don't know guys…" Keiko stammered, and Yusuke looked over to her, "But, if you're going, then I'm going too."

"Magnificent," the Professor exclaimed, "Looks like we'll have some new students after all."

NEXT DAY

Kurama was instantly sold about the idea of going to the Institute, and found an intellectual equal in Hank. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, and Kurama were already to go, having packed their bags and passports ready. Kuwabara's gang were there to wish him luck, as well as Kuwabara's sister and parents, Yusuke's mother, Keiko's mother and father, and Kurama's mother.

"Now, you be careful over there," Mrs. Yukimura told the departing group.

"We will," Keiko said cheerfully, trying to hide her tears.

"Kuwabara, you better not get a new gang over there and forget us!" Komada told his former leader, "Alright?"

"Yeah…I won't forget about you guys," Kuwabara said, tears streaming down his face, "Okubo…you are in charge of the gang now…don't take anymore turf, we have enough already, okay?"

"Yeah…sure…" Okubo sniffled, seeing his long time best friend leaving.

"Yusuke, I just want to say…I'm proud of you!" Mrs. Urameshi cried, embracing her son, "I'll turn my life around, and make you proud of me!"

"Uh…mom…you're embarrassing me…" Yusuke said, before returning the embrace, and a tear trickled down his cheek, "I'll miss you, mom."

Kurama was hugging his mother, who now knew his secret, "Mother, I'll write every day. I'm sorry I won't be able to make it for your wedding…"

"Don't worry about that, Shuichi…" Shiori Minamino, Shuichi's mother told her son, and leaned in, "Kurama, you be sure to protect my boy…"

"Yoko will, you don't have to worry about that…" Kurama said, the fox demon inside of him nodding in agreement, "The Professor will help me be able to control my plant manipulation power even more, and even help me transform into Yoko Kurama at will…"

"Do your best, my son…" Mrs. Minamino said, giving him a kiss on the forehead as tears streamed down her face.

"You have nothing to worry about, Mrs. Minamino," The Professor assured her, wheeling towards them.

"Professor Xavier is putting your children in the very best of care," Ororo assured the weeping mothers, "You don't have to worry, we have plenty of students at the Institute from different countries, and they are able to keep in contact with their parents."

"Be sure to keep my brother out of trouble, okay?" Shizuru, Kuwabara's older sister told Ororo and Hank.

"Of course, he'll be just fine," Hank assured her, "He'll enjoy the school, and probably will like my physics lessons."

"Hey, Professor, we have to go now," Logan said, as he grabbed some of the student's bags, "We have to beat that storm."

"Right, now, if you're done saying your good-byes, we can go now. The private jet is outside, so just follow us," the Professor said, and his new students complied, after getting one more hug with their loved ones.

They passed the airport security, and flashed their passports to them. Walking down to the lower levels, they walked out the door and into a hangar, where the X-Jet was ready.

"**This** is what we're taking?" Kuwabara asked, starting to get really excited.

"Yes," the Professor replied, as the bottom hatch opened, and they all walked up the ramp.

"About time you got here," an old feminine voice said coming from a seat.

"Genkai?" Yusuke asked as the old Spirit Wave master turned around, "You're coming too?"

"Yes, I want to be sure my pupil gets the right training," Genkai told him, "Now, dimwit, just sit down."

Yusuke shrugged, and sat next to Keiko. Kuwabara sat next to Kurama, while Xavier, Hank, Logan, and Ororo went into the cockpit.

The hangar door opened when all of them were in and seated, and Hank activated a cloaking device for the aircraft. It changed into an ordinary looking small private jet, and taxied down the runway. It then started taking up speed for takeoff. When it reached takeoff speed, it started lifting off the ground and started flying toward America.

"Hey, you don't think Hiei will come, do you Kurama?" Kuwabara asked, and Kurama smirked.

"He has a way of reaching any area, even if it means crossing a large ocean," Kurama replied, remembering how Hiei tracked him down, "So, we'll probably see him in Bayville eventually."

Perched on top of the flight control tower, Hiei watched as his former teammates flew off.

'Figures, now they're gone, probably I'll get some peace and quiet…' Hiei thought, smirking, 'But, it would be fun seeing where they are going and I need a vacation…'

The fire demon then vanished, and he began following his teammates by running across the very ocean at blinding speeds.

SPIRIT WORLD

Koenma, King Enma's son, was sitting on his throne, watching the Spirit Detective and his friends go off to America. Ayame, the second in command pilot of the River Styx walked in, and noticed that Hiei was leaving his probation zone.

"You're allowing this Koenma?" the black haired beauty asked, and he nodded.

"Yes, Hiei has served his time," Koenma replied, "They'll all be in good hands. Tell Botan to go down to Bayville as well."

"As you wish, Lord Koenma," Ayame bowed then walked out of Koenma's office.

'Just don't cause any trouble, Hiei,' Koenma thought seriously, as he continued to watch the screen.


	3. The Institute and the XMen

Chapter 3: The Institute and the X-Men

PACIFIC OCEAN

Flying over the ocean at super-sonic speeds, the new students of Charles Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters had started taking a well needed nap. They wouldn't be seeing their old friends or family for a while, and also had a hard day of packing and other stuff. Kurama was the only one who wasn't asleep however; he was gazing out the window, looking as they passed the clouds. This was the young fox demon's first trip away from home, other than Demon World. He would be starting Junior Year at Bayville High, since he was the oldest in the group.

"Hey, Kurama," Hank said as he walked out of the cockpit, "You okay?"

"Yes," Kurama replied, starting to get worried about his mother, "I…am just worried how my mom will get by without me."

"You have been away from her before, right?" Hank asked, started to bond with the fox demon.

"Yes, but I always worry," Kurama replied, "During the Dark Tournament, one of the demons I was fighting, Roto, tried to use my mother against me. I luckily planted a death plant on him before he could press a button signaling his brother to attack her."

"I see…" Hank said in understanding, "Guess, in cases like those, you should worry. But, you have to remember, your mother can take care of herself most of the time right, and she is getting married, correct?"

"Yes, she is getting married soon," Kurama replied, joy coming back into his voice, "Thanks for helping me, Hank."

"No problem. I bet being a 1000 year old fox demon; you probably know more things than me, right?" Hank joked, and they both had a hardy, yet quiet laugh.

"Probably, I think we should test each other when we get to the Institute," Kurama laughed, and noticed that they were already over land, "This jet is remarkably quick."

"You have heard of the SR-71 Black Bird, haven't you?" Hank asked, and Kurama nodded, "Well, the Professor needed an aircraft that could travel over great distances and high speeds. Using his family's fortune, he bought a SR-71 Black Bird and enhanced it, making it even faster and more durable. Also, he made it a multi-passenger aircraft for transportation."

"Fascinating," Kurama said, and then he looked over the farmland, "Where are we going to land?"

"The Institute has a hangar for the X-Jet, right underneath the school," Hank replied, "Due to the plane's stealth capabilities, we can fly in unnoticed."

"That's good," Kurama gave a sigh of relief, not wanting to bother the other people near the Institute.

Genkai then walked over to the still sleeping Yusuke, stuck her finger in her mouth, and then jammed it into his ear, "Time to wake up, dimwit."

"YEOCH!" Yusuke screamed, receiving a spirit power charged wet willy, and waking Keiko and Kuwabara up, "What the hell was that for grandma?!"

"We're here, Yusuke," Genkai said calmly, then walked over to her seat again.

"Already…?" Kuwabara asked, taking a deep yawn, "It's only been three hours…"

"The X-Jet can cover that distance a lot faster than we thought," Kurama explained, seeing his friends wipe their eyes.

'Everyone, fasten you seatbelts and turn your seats into their upright positions,' Xavier told his new students and old friend telepathically.

Everyone but Yusuke, Kurama, Hank, and Genkai were freaked out by that. Keiko had never had anyone talk in her head before, and wasn't sure she would get use to it.

"D…d-did someone just talk in my head?" Kuwabara asked nervously, looking around the entire jet.

"Relax, Kuwabara, that was just Professor Xavier using his telepathy to contact us," Hank reassured the young man, who sat back down in his seat.

"Does he do that often?" Keiko asked, starting to wonder if she belonged here.

"Only when he has to contact us," Hank told her, "Wait till you see inside."

The X-Jet glided towards the back yard, where it would fly into a secret opening. The door leading to the hangar opened, and Xavier and Logan guided it in. The opening closed, leaving just the grassy area where the door was.

The hangar lit up, illuminating the chrome colored room. There was another huge door, right in the back of the X-Jet, which was for take off out of the cliffs that were behind the mansion. The Professor, Logan, and Ororo walked into the passenger area where the new students and Genkai were getting their bags.

Hank put some of Keiko's bags over his shoulder, wanting to help her out. Yusuke just had two suitcases, full of clothes, other essentials, and his DS. Kuwabara just had one suitcase filled with clothes and essentials, plus his Gameboy Advance. Kurama had his clothing, but also he brought books with him, in just two suitcases.

"Now, show them the way," Genkai told the Professor and his colleagues as she walked down the ramp, "I'm going to my room."

"You already read where your room is in my mind, haven't you, Genkai?" Xavier asked playfully, and she turned around and winked, "Good, Ororo, could you show Keiko to her room please?"

"Of course Professor," Ororo replied cheerfully, "Keiko, please follow me."

"Alright," Keiko followed Ororo, and Hank followed her since he was carrying one of her bags.

"Now, Logan, will you show the boys to their rooms?" Xavier asked, and Logan grunted.

"…of course, Professor, please, follow me…" Logan replied, as he waved his hand to guide the two teenage boys and the one kitsune to follow him.

They complied, and started following Logan threw the chrome interior of the basement. Kuwabara thought he just walked into a sci-fi movie as they passed threw the circular doors with an 'X' on them. The two teenagers and kitsune were amazed at what they saw; it was a paradise of nerds, geeks, etc.!

"Logan, what is this place?" Yusuke asked, seeing the signs over the door ways.

"This is the area where you will train, Yusuke," Logan replied, still walking forward, "That room over there, the Danger Room, is where you will be honing your skills."

Yusuke nodded slowly, still following Logan with his two friends. They reached the elevator, and stepped into it. Kuwabara can't believe that the elevator was even high tech, the digital readout and the soundless rising effect of the elevator made him get even happier.

"Wow! This is so sweet!" Kuwabara grinned widely, rubbing his hands together.

"Since when did you become a techno-geek, Kuwabara?" Yusuke joked, and Kuwabara gave him the evil eye.

Kurama hid a chuckle and Logan huffed. They reached the first floor of the mansion, and the metallic doors opened. Xavier was the last one to arrive in the mansion, while Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama had started taking a look around the huge main lobby of the mansion. Their mouths were agape, and Yusuke noticed that Keiko hadn't gone up to her room yet.

"She wanted to check out the scenery," Hank explained to them, still holding her bag.

"This…is incredible…" Keiko gasped as she looked around the huge lobby, "Oh…yeah, my room."

"Just follow me, dear," Ororo told her warmly, and they both walked up the staircase followed closely by Hank, who was still carrying her bag.

Just then, a teenager with red shades and a demon with blue fur, yellow eyes, three fingers, and an arrow tipped tail walked into the room.

"What? What is that?" Kuwabara stuttered, pointing at the demon-looking creature, 'Man, I wish I had my spirit powers now!'

Yusuke and Kurama remained at ease, since they didn't sense a malicious or demonic aura coming off the creature.

"Vhoa, calm down dude," the creature told Kuwabara in a German accent.

"Well, you're not a demon, that's for sure," Yusuke said, as he put his hand out, "I'm Yusuke Urameshi."

"Cool, I'm Kurt Wagner," the demon-looking creature shook Yusuke's hand and then Kurama's.

"Nice too meet you," Kurama said, shaking Kurt's other hand, "Call me Kurama at the Institute, but at school it is Shuichi Minamino."

"Vhy do you have two names?" Kurt asked, "Oh yeah, vhis is Scott Summers."

"I have a kitsune, or fox demon inside of me," Kurama replied cheerfully, shaking Scott's hand, but he saw the look on Kurt's face, "Oh, don't worry, he isn't one of those evil demons."

"And who is this guy?" Scott asked, pointing to Kuwabara.

"Oh, I'm Kazuma Kuwabara," Kuwabara replied proudly, "Uh, so why do you have rose colored shades?"

"They are actually ruby quartz," Scott explained, pointing at his glasses, "You see, I fire optic blasts threw my eyes, and they are pretty powerful. If I let it all out, I could destroy an entire mountain with one blast."

"That's cool," Yusuke said, and he began shaking Scott's hand, "I can do kind of the same thing with my spirit energy."

"You can?" Scott asked, kind of surprised.

"Yep," Yusuke then looked for something near him, "When I focus my spirit energy into my finger, I can fire off a blast; it's called the Spirit Gun."

"And vhat can you do, Kurama?" Kurt asked, and the red head reached into his hair.

He took out a rose, "Wait for it…"

The rose then formed into a long whip, "You see, I can manipulate any plant due to Yoko Kurama's blood flowing threw my veins."

"Now that is really cool," Scott commented, and looked at Kuwabara, "You?"

"If my spirit energy would come back, I could form two spirit swords in my hands!" Kuwabara replied, wishing he didn't use that Trial Sword, "Just got to wait a little longer until my spirit energy returns."

"Okay…" Scott then caught the look that Logan was flashing him, "You guys better follow to your rooms' right now…I'll…uh…go get the others…"

Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama then turned to see the glare that Logan was giving them. Yusuke started checking if his powers still worked, and even Kurama did. Kuwabara's legs started shaking, and Logan grunted.

"Just follow me," Logan told them, sounding mad, since he didn't want to waste anymore time, "Well…MOVE!"

They all jumped into place and started carrying their bags. Not even Toguro, the strongest opponent they ever faced was as scary as this guy.

"Logan is starting to make Hiei look like a little kitten," Kuwabara whispered into Yusuke's ear.

"Yeah, really," Yusuke nodded, walking up the staircase.

They went down the hall to two empty bedrooms. One had one bed and the other had two. All the beds were ready, and there were two dressers and two desks in one room and one dresser and one desk and even a bookcase in the other.

"Now you can choose which room you want…" Logan told them, and he walked away.

"Well, you get the single room, Kurama. We'll bunk together," Yusuke told his friend generously.

"Thanks," Kurama shook his friend's hand, and walked into his new room.

They went into their rooms and unpacked. Kurama placed the books that he had brought onto the bookcase, placing his favorites on the top. Yusuke and Kuwabara played janken for either side of the room. Yusuke won, beating Kuwabara two times out of three. They unpacked the clothes that they brought, and put their handhelds onto the bureaus.

After they finished unpacking, they met Keiko in the lounge, who was talking to a tall red haired girl and a shorter, about Keiko's height girl with long brown hair. Kurama then noticed a girl with white face makeup on, green lipstick, short brown hair with a white stripe in it, and she was wearing a green fishnet shirt over a tank top, and black pants and gloves.

"Hey! Yusuke!" Keiko called over to him, and he sighed and walked over.

"So you must be Yusuke Urameshi," the tall red head said calmly to him.

"Yeah, and you are?"

"Jean Grey," the red head replied, "And this is Kitty Pryde."

"Like so nice to meet you!" Kitty gleefully said, shaking his hand.

"Yeah, okay?" Yusuke started to wonder if he should avoid this hyper active girl.

Kurama had walked over to the gothic girl, "Hello, my name's Kurama."

"Why aren't you saying 'hello' to the others?" the gothic girl asked harshly.

"It's just you looked like you were lonely," Kurama replied, and then he smiled, and reached for the rose bud in his hair, and formed it into a full grown flower, "For you."

The gothic girl was a little taken by this and blushed, and then took the rose from him, "Why thank you. Meh name's Rogue by the way."

"Well, nice to meet you, Rogue," Kurama said, giving her a warm smile, making her blush even more, and then he walked over to the others.

Kuwabara sat down on the couch next to an African-American boy with blonde hair; he was playing Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater 4 on the Playstation 2.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Kuwabara asked, "I'm pretty sweet at this game."

The African-American boy then looked over to him, and tossed a controller over to him, "Let's play two-player, okay?"

"Yeah," Kuwabara grinned, eagerly taking the controller, "My name's Kuwabara by the way."

"Cool, mine's Evan," the African-American boy replied after they both chose their characters, and they began playing.

"So, are there anymore mutants here?" Keiko asked Jean, who nodded.

"Well, there's Amara, she can control fire, there's Ray, who can project electricity, there's Sam, who can make himself invulnerable when he 'powers up', there's also Jubilee, she can create 'fireworks' which have some destructive force, there's Bobby, who can generate ice, and finally there is Jamie, the youngest member who can create copies of himself when he hits something," Jean replied, "Oh, and there is also Tabitha, she could make energy time bombs, but she moved out after an incident with her father. She is living with the Brotherhood now."

"Brotherhood?" Keiko asked Jean, wondering who they were.

"You'll meet them tomorrow, when school starts," Professor X interjected, wheeling himself in, "You all have Danger Room sessions first thing in the morning."

"What? School tomorrow?" Kuwabara groaned, and Xavier nodded.

"It is Tuesday, you know, and you still have register at Bayville High," Xavier told them sternly, "Curfew is in an hour, so have that long to get acquainted."

"Make that half an hour, Charles," the raspy feminine voice of Genkai interjected, as she walked into the room, "I want to see if the dimwit has been slacking off since the Dark Tournament."

"What? You can't be serious grandma!" Yusuke gasped, and Genkai shook her head.

"And the rest of you are also going to get a tougher training schedule while I am here," Genkai told them, "You need to be prepared for whatever is out there, so I am going to make you into tip top shape for the future!"

Everyone wasn't too happy about that, since they usually were able to stay up till 10:30 on school nights, and Yusuke and Kuwabara usually stayed up till midnight, and Kurama was the only one who went to bed at 11:00.

From the balcony, Logan was smirking while smoking a cigar, 'I think I like this Genkai person already…'

Kurama decided to retire in early since he wanted to do some reading. He said his goodnights to his new and old friends, and walked up the stairs. Rogue decided to follow him, and check to see what he was doing.

A knock was heard on his door, "It's open."

Rogue walked in to see Kurama putting on his pajama shirt, "Oh…sorry…"

"It's quite all right, please come in, come in," Kurama urged her, and she complied, "Is there something you want to speak to me about?"

"Well, it's not everyday that a young man forms a rose in front of a gal's eyes," Rogue joked, pointing to where she put the rose, "I guess you have the ability to form plants, right?"

"Not exactly," Kurama replied, "In my Yoko Kurama form, I can form plants out of nothing, but in my human form I can only manipulate the plants, from just a weed, seed, or bud, using my spirit energy."

"That's cool," Rogue said, clearing the hair out of her eyes, and looked over to his book case, "You have a lot of books."

"Well, I couldn't take them all from my old house," Kurama told her, "My favorites are near my bed."

"The _Lord of the Rings _by J.R.R. Tolkien, what do ya know, we have the same taste in literature," Rogue chuckled, and she began to blush, "Ya know, there is a bookstore at the mall I could take you to so you can get some more books, if you want…"

"I'd like that," Kurama replied cheerfully, and Rogue smiled and walked out the door, "Good night, Rogue."

"Good night, Kurama," Rogue said as she closed the door, and felt her heart racing, 'Why am I feeling this way? I can never touch him…'

Rogue shook off the feeling she was having about Kurama, and hastily walked to her room.

**NEXT DAY**

The tired groups of students were waken up at 4:30 AM by Genkai, and were led down to the Danger Room. While the other students were suiting up, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama were in regular fighting clothes. Keiko, since she had discovered her abilities, if she had any, was allowed to sleep in later since Genkai and Xavier didn't want her to hurt herself.

"Man…I thought I was done with the 4:30 wake up call…" Yusuke yawned while he wiped his eye, "Well, might as well get this over with…"

"Yeah…sure…" Kuwabara yawned deeply, then looked over to Kurama, "How…could you not be tired, Kurama?"

"I'm used to waking up early," Kurama explained, watching as Yusuke and Kuwabara began to stretch.

The street clothes that Yusuke had on were a basic tee shirt and jeans, as well as sneakers. Kuwabara wrapped bandage tape below his ribcage to keep his gut in, and had on a white over shirt that kept his manly chest exposed and white pants, plus just normal boots. Kurama had on a traditional blue vest with a dragon symbol on it that draped over his waist, and underneath that was a long sleeved shirt, and he was wearing white pants with martial arts shoes.

"I really don't like the sound, 'Danger Room' guys…" Kuwabara muttered as he followed Yusuke and Kurama to the door leading to the Danger Room, "I can just hear my bones breaking…"

"Calm down Kuwabara," Yusuke told his taller friend, "You were the second best fighter at Sarayashiki Junior High, remember, and that was before you got your spirit powers, so you'll do just fine."

They waited for fifteen minutes, hearing the laser sounds, buzz saws, things falling, and puffing sounds coming from the Danger Room. Kuwabara was getting more nervous by the minute, since his powers weren't working at the moment. Yusuke had nodded off, and Kurama was busy reading a book. The tall teenager was stumped on how they could be so calm.

The Danger Room opened, and Scott came out first followed by Jean, then Rogue, then Evan, then Kitty, and finally Kurt. They all had strange black uniforms that had an 'X' on them.

"Hey Scott, what's with the Halloween costumes?" Yusuke asked, and Scott grinned for a second as he wiped his forehead.

"They're not costumes, Yusuke," Scott told him, "You see, we are Professor Xavier's oldest students. We're the X-Men."

"Okay," Yusuke said, starting to take all of that in, "So, what do you do besides train here and study?"

"We basically go out and find new mutants, and also we try to stop mutants and others from causing trouble," Scott explained, as Jean brought out some water bottles from the locker rooms, "Thanks."

"Well, I hope you guys are ready," Evan said, walking over to them, well, more like riding his skateboard over to them, "You guys may be candidates to be X-Men, so they want to test you out."

"Vhat Genkai lady though, she is more brutal vhan Logan," Kurt told them, "She didn't even let us get a break in there!"

"That's Genkai for ya," Yusuke joked him, "I trained for six weeks with her to enhance my spirit powers, it worked, but it was brutal. Then, we all fought in the Dark Tournament, and I had an even tougher time, try sleeping for only two hours each night for five weeks?"

"Yeesh! Vhat sounds really bad!" Kurt gasped, and Yusuke smirked.

"It was worth it," Yusuke told Kurt, "I was able to get much stronger because of Genkai's training."

"Like, how did you deal with it?" Kitty asked, after taking a big gulp of water, "I mean that type of schedule could take a toll on your social life."

"I basically didn't have a social life back home," Yusuke replied, "I am Earth's Spirit Detective after all, so it was skipping school to go on cases most of the time. Kuwabara was a tag along at first…"

"Hey!" Kuwabara snapped, sounding insulted.

"You didn't know what you were getting into," Yusuke clarified, "When I had to stop the Saint Beasts, which was after my first batch of Genkai training, Kuwabara tagged along. Kurama also was there, since he and this other demon, Hiei, were trying to get pardons for a crime that they committed a while ago."

"What was the crime?" Kitty asked, then the sound of the intercom turning on stopped Yusuke from explaining.

"Kuwabara, report to the Danger Room for your test," the raspy voice of Logan commanded, and Kuwabara gulped, "Now."

"Well…nice knowing you guys…" Kuwabara took a deep breath, and then walked into the Danger Room.

In the control room over the Danger Room, Logan talked into the microphone, "Just relax kid, we are just going to evaluate your abilities right now."

"Yeah…sure…" Kuwabara breathed nervously, "Just go easy on me; I can't use my spirit power you know!"

"I put it on easy for ya, so just calm down," Logan told him, and pressed the button, "Begin!"

All of a sudden, laser cannons appeared and started firing at Kuwabara. He quickly jumped and dodged the blast of light, and then started to get hit. The blasts hurt, but didn't break the skin. He started running around the room, trying not to get cornered by the lasers. When he reached the other side of the room, the lasers stopped firing, and walls rose from the floor, boxing him in.

"Hey! What is this?" Kuwabara yelled, then he growled, "Okay…"

He wound up his strongest punch, and knocked down the metal wall, and began to run with more of metallic walls rising around him. He either jumped over them or kicked them down.

"Hm, impressive," Ororo, in wearing her X-Men outfit commented, as she watched Kuwabara perform, "He seems to have a degree of super strength and agility."

"I agree, Storm," the Professor nodded in agreement, watching the young teenager almost effortlessly knocking down the metal barriers he put in his way.

Kuwabara leapt into the middle of the Danger Room, getting a little tired. Then, buzz saws appeared and he silently cursed his luck. He leapt over them, trying not to get cut. He was looking a little funny with the expression on his face, and he began running faster and faster, trying not to get cut, and then the saws went back into their compartments.

"Okay, Kuwabara, one last test," Logan told him, activating the robots.

All of a sudden, 20 humanoid robots rose out of the floor. Kuwabara grinned, and then cracked his knuckles.

"No sweat!" Kuwabara then ran head long at the robots, kicking the first one down with a front kick.

The farthest away from him began firing weak blasts of energy at him, but he managed to avoid it. He grabbed one of the robots and hurled it into a group of them. He then finished off the last ones with a series of punches and kicks, and turned around and gave a victory sign to those in the control room.

"Not to shabby, eh?" Kuwabara grinned, still presenting his victory sign.

"Beginner's luck…" Logan grumbled, then went for the microphone, "All right, Kuwabara, you can get out now, good job today."

Kuwabara walked confidently out of the Danger Room, completely forgetting his fatigue. The younger X-Men congratulated him for a good job.

"Nice moves man," Evan said as he shook Kuwabara's hand, "You got to teach me some of those moves."

"Sure, so how was that, Urameshi…?" Kuwabara then noticed that Yusuke had nodded off again, "Oh, well, he missed my triumph."

"Ah hope you know, darling, you had the easiest setting," Rogue told him, shooting down Kuwabara in flames, "But, you did do well out there."

"Gee, thanks…" Kuwabara said as he sat down.

"Alright, Kurama, report to the Danger Room," Logan announced, and Kurama sighed and put down the book he was reading.

He quietly went into the Danger Room, and Logan looked down at him. He decided to put it on a higher setting, since he could use his abilities.

"Kurama, I have it set on level 6, good luck," Logan told him, and Kurama nodded.

The fox demon took out his extra rose bud, and formed it into his Rose Whip. Laser cannons, more, much more than the ones that came out and fired against Kuwabara appeared out of the sides of the Danger Room. They began firing at him, and he deflected the bolts of energy with his whip. He leapt into the air, and cut the first row of laser turrets with his Rose Whiplash, without getting any damage. Latching onto one of the destroyed laser cannons, he launched himself at the others, slashing them to ribbons or making them explode from just a touch of his unbreakable Rose Whip.

That test was over, and Logan activated the hologram, which sent Kurama into a war zone. Tanks rolled over to him, and they began shelling him. He jumped over them and cut them in half with his rose whip. Then, he dropped a few seeds into the ground, and hopped away from the two other tanks that were approaching him. All of a sudden, a tree shot out of the ground, knocking both tanks over, and he finished them off with his Rose Whiplash.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday," Hank commented, as Logan started typing in the code for Kurama's final test.

The hologram disappeared, including the tree that Kurama had grown. The robots appeared, but they were more advanced, and there were more of them.

"This is your final test, Kurama," Logan told the fox demon, and all the robots started attacking him.

Jumping into the air, Kurama slashed the robots with his Rose Whip. He then began to slash in a star, and launched a wave of energy at the robots, destroying them all. He landed, and turned the whip back into a rose bud, and put it back into his hair.

"Now…I have to admit, that was impressive," Logan conceded, "Well, Kurama, you can go now."

Kurama exited the Danger Room, and dusted the soot off of his vest, and got greeted by the X-Men.

"Those were some really nice moves Kurama," Scott commented, "I never saw anything like that."

"Yeah, that was something," Jean said, because even she had trouble on level five of the Danger Room, especially all by herself.

"Yeah…it really was…" Rogue said, and then she shook those thoughts out of her head, "Now, I think it's Yusuke's turn."

"Now…Yusuke…hey-what the?" Logan yelled into the intercom, like he was being pushed.

"WAKE UP, DIMWIT!" the raspy feminine voice of Genkai rang over the intercom, waking Yusuke up in a hurry, "Now, back to you, Logan."

"Yeah, thanks, Yusuke, report to the Danger Room for your test," Logan said, getting back into the seat that Genkai pushed him out of.

Yusuke yawned, and entered the Danger Room, "Man Genkai, did you have to scream so loud?"

"It was the only way to wake you up, dimwit!" Genkai retorted, "Put it on the highest setting."

"Are you nuts? Not even I could take that!" Logan asked, and then he got the look that Genkai shot at him, "Well, I hope you like your new student being extra crispy."

Logan turned the setting up to level 10. He could only get up to level 8, so he knew this was going to be tough.

Saws and laser cannons appeared in the Danger Room, and Yusuke took a defensive stance. He dodged the laser fire, and bluish energy formed around his fists. He deflected the bolts of energy, and slammed his fist into the saws. It was like a ripple effect, whenever he launched a punch, he destroyed more of the Danger Room's 'toys'. The bigger cannons then appeared, and fired huge bolts of non-lethal energy at him. Jumping off the metal floor, he slammed his fist onto the giant cannon. Turning around, he braced his hand and launched his own bolt of energy threw his right index finger. That destroyed the cannons, and the second test began.

A new hologram appeared, it was on the beach and a huge tidal wave was approaching him. He put out his right index finger, and loaded a spirit gun with only half his power. He launched it, and completely wrecked the wave. The hologram shut off, and Yusuke turned around.

"Those blasts that he's firing seem to be on par with Scotts," Xavier commented, and Yusuke waited for his final test.

He didn't have to wait long, like if on que, one thousand highly advance attack robots appeared in the Danger Room. They all charged him, and he pulled his right fist to his waist.

"Shot gun!" Yusuke yelled, sending off a bunch of energy blasts, destroying about 70 robots at once.

The robots fired missiles at him, and he put up an energy barrier. Charging into the army of attack robots, he plowed his way through them using just his fists. He made quick work out of them, even though they were capable of taking down two or three tanks at once if they were set on killing mode. When Yusuke had reduced the numbers of robots down to 100, he leapt into the air, charging up one more Spirit Gun. The instruments in the control room started going haywire as he put more power into his attack.

"In…incredible…" Storm gasped, as she shielded her eyes from the sparks coming off the controls.

Yusuke then launched the Spirit Gun into the group of 100 attack robots, completely obliterating them. He landed, and gave the same victory sign to the adults in the control room.

"He definitely has potential," Xavier commented, 'But, I think the Danger Room will need a few upgrades to deal with his and Kurama's powers. And, when Kuwabara's spirit energy returns, it'll be a good thing I upgraded.'

"How was that?" Yusuke yelled up to the control room, "Not to shabby, eh?"

"Yeah, Yusuke," Logan replied, "You can go with the others now, you guys have school in an hour, and for you, Kuwabara, and Kurama you have even less than that."

"What?"


	4. First Day of School: Part 1

Chapter 4: First Day of School Part 1

**Xavier Mansion: 7:00 AM**

Keiko had waken up, and decided to carry Puu down to breakfast. After taking a shower, she walked down to the dining room, to see her classmates and friends already up and eating.

"How long have you guys been up?" Keiko asked, as Puu wiggled in her arms when it smelled the food.

"Since 4:30…" Evan replied, sinking his teeth into a sausage, "Danger Room session at the earliest time."

"You're lucky you haven't gotten your powers yet," Kitty told Keiko as she drank some orange juice, "Hey, like what is that in your arm?"

"Oh, it's Yusuke's Spirit Beast, Puu," Keiko replied, as Jean and Kitty walked up to her.

"Like, it's so cute!" Kitty exclaimed as Puu started speaking, "Where did you get it, Keiko?"

"It came from Yusuke's Spirit Egg," Keiko replied, as Jean and Kitty played with Puu, "He thought it was going to be a monster."

"Why?" Jean asked, scratching Puu's ear.

"Well, when the Spirit Beast hatches out of the egg, it is suppose to reflect the person's true self," Keiko explained, trying to recall everything that Botan had told her, "Since Yusuke was pumping out negative energy, Koenma and Botan thought he was going to get a monster that was going to eat Yusuke, but instead we got Puu."

"So that's big bad ole' Yusuke's true self, huh?" Scott joked, and then he got a glare from Yusuke that would have made Logan jump, and remembered his session in the Danger Room, "Just…joking man."

"Va, lighten up," Kurt told Yusuke, seeing that the Spirit Detective wasn't too happy on how his Spirit Beast turned out, "It looks like a baby to me, I mean."

"So, you know, it could turn into what you are right now," Kitty concluded, leaving a sour look on Yusuke's face.

Yusuke plopped a whole egg into his mouth, and leaned back in his chair. Kuwabara was busy shoveling cereal into his mouth to even notice what had happened, and Kurama was sitting drinking coffee, and eating a light breakfast of buttered toast and bacon on the side. Ororo then came into the room with her coat on.

"Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Keiko, we need to get you registered at Bayville High, so when you're done eating, meet me out in the car," Ororo told them, and they complied.

'Great, first day in a new school…' Yusuke thought as he went to put his sneakers on and his coat.

Keiko grabbed a piece of toast and buttered it. She wanted to eat light, since she was a little excited about going to a new school, since she wanted to make a good impression. After eating the toast, she drank her milk and ran up to get her shoes and coat.

"Hank, will you look after Puu while I'm at school today?" Keiko asked, and Hank nodded, "Thanks."

"Not a problem," Hank told her, as Puu flew towards him, squeaking his name, "Puu seems like a bird, don't worry, he's in good hands."

Keiko smiled, and then ran up to where Yusuke was waiting. Kurama finished his coffee and toast, and walked to get his coat and shoes. Finally, Kuwabara after chugging his glass of orange juice walked up and got his shoes and jacket. Ororo drove them to Bayville High in the van, and dropped both of them off. As they left, a person with tall black, spiky hair with a white highlight watch them silently from a tree.

"So, the detective has come here for some reason…" the figure, Hiei, said to himself, then he looked at the mansion, 'There are beings with powerful spiritual energies in there…'

The fire demon vanished, then reappeared on ground level near the sign, "Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters…this is getting interesting…" he told himself silently, and as more people came out of the mansion, he vanished again.

**BAYVILLE HIGH SCHOOL, 7:15 AM**

Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara, and Kurama were waiting in the office for Principal Kelly to finish checking their transcripts. Mr. Takanaka had kindly eliminated Yusuke's and Kuwabara's record of major offenses, because they were mainly offenses from the bad teachers Iwamoto and Akashi. Principal Kelly then walked out of his office, followed by the secretary.

"Well, it seems that everything is in order," Principal Kelly told them, and he looked at Kuwabara and Yusuke, "But, Mr. Takanaka said in his recommendation that you two got into a lot of scraps back in Sarayashiki Junior High…so let me warn you, you only get three strikes before you're suspended for fighting, got it."

"Yes sir…" Yusuke said drolly, "But, what if we are ambushed on school grounds, what happens then? Or if we are defending a fellow student?"

"That would be different, the three strike rule only applies if you start it, got it?" Principal Kelly told Yusuke sternly, and the youth nodded, "Oh, and Keiko Yukimura, when summer rolls by, you can join the schools volleyball team, since Mr. Takanaka said you were very good in the sport."

"Yes sir…" Keiko muttered, starting to get homesick for her friends back home.

"Good, you four are dismissed," Principal Kelly told them, and they nodded, "Ms. Granger will give you your schedules and the locations of your lockers."

Principal Kelly then walked back into his office, and Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, and Kurama went to the secretary handed them their schedules.

"Keiko, your locker is next to Yusuke's, which is next to Scott Summers," Ms. Granger told them, and pointed down the hall to the right, "Shuichi, yours is in the middle of Bobby Drake's and Rogue'."

She pointed straight down the hall, "And Kazuma, your locker is in between Lance Alvers and Kitty Pryde's, on the bottom."

By the time they found their lockers, the other students had arrived. First bell hadn't rung yet, and Kitty decided to show the new students around. Scott, Jean, and Rogue were going to show Kurama around, since they would be having classes with him.

"Well, Yusuke, you, me, Kurt, and Keiko have first period together," Kitty told them, "World History I, I think you'll like the teacher."

"Hey, I've never liked any teacher," Yusuke interjected rudely, but Keiko gave him a jab to the ribs, "Ouch, what was that for Keiko?"

"For being rude," Keiko replied sternly, proving once more that she was the only person he feared to piss off, "Please continue Kitty."

"Okay, Kuwabara, you have class with Evan, Amara, and Ray," Kitty told him, "You have a tough class too."

"Great…" Kuwabara mumbled under his breath.

"So, are there any school events scheduled soon?" Keiko asked, as she followed Kitty and Kurt into the World History I class.

"Well, in a month there is the Sadie Hawkins dance," Kitty replied, sitting next to Yukimura and Yusuke, and then saw the clueless look on their faces, "It's a dance where the girls ask the boys."

"Oh, we don't have those back at home," Keiko told her, "In fact, we don't have many dances at our old school."

"All the ones we had I skipped, had better things to do than dance around," Yusuke scoffed, looking at the chalkboard.

"Vell, I'm going," Kurt told Yusuke, "I just hope some girl asks me."

The class started as the teacher entered the room. It was a young man, probably in his late 20's. Yusuke looked around the room to see some girls gushing over him.

'Sheesh…those girls need to get laid, badly,' Yusuke thought, as the teacher started writing on the board.

Kurama had his first period class with Rogue, and it was math. He could tell Rogue didn't like math, or the teacher.

"That gal is too stuck up," Rogue told him, "She never liked tha way ah dressed."

"Old woman, right?" Kurama asked, his heightened senses acting up.

"Yep, how'd ya guess?" Rogue replied, and he pointed to his nose.

"I retain a bit of Yoko Kurama's senses in this form," Kurama explained, as the teacher entered the room.

"It seems we have a new student class…" the teacher announced in a high, rich like manner, "Please, come up to the front of the class and tell us who you are."

Kurama complied, and walked up to the front of the class. Clearly, this teacher was old fashioned, and didn't mind humiliating her students.

"Stand up straight, and tell us your name," the commanded sternly, and Kurama complied.

"My name is Shuichi Minamino, please to meet you all," Kurama introduced and bowed to the classroom, and the teacher rose and eyebrow, and Kurama caught it.

'Figures. Damn Orientals,' the teacher thought, and Kurama heard the whole thing, "Thank you, Shuichi, and please sit down next to Rogue now."

"I think I'm **not** going to like her," Kurama whispered to Rogue, "She's racist."

"Yeah…I'm surprised Kelly hasn't fired her," Rogue told him, and then the old teacher started writing on the board.

Kuwabara was sitting next to Evan in his class, English I, and they were chatting about Yukina.

"So, you fell in love with an ice demon named Yukina, right?" Evan asked Kuwabara after he was told about Yukina.

"She's actually an ice _maiden_," Kuwabara clarified, and then dreamily looked up into the sky, "We are connected by an unbreakable bond of love…."

Evan's mouth dropped slightly, and he rose an eyebrow, "Man, does she even acknowledge your feelings or something?"

"Uh, she hasn't yet…" Kuwabara replied, scratching his chin, "But I know she loves me!"

"Yeah, okay dude…" Evan said as the teacher walked into the room.

The day passed on pretty well, and Yusuke started finding teachers he actually liked. So far, the new students at the Institute haven't met the Brotherhood yet, and that was a good thing. Kurama was starting to get a lot of female followers, but he just tried to ignore them. Kuwabara had gotten a few new friends, mostly jocks, but he was keeping his vow not to form a new gang. Keiko was hanging around mostly with Yusuke, but also with Jean during the breaks in period.

**LUNCH TIME**

Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama were sitting with Kitty, Evan, Scott, Rogue, and Kurt. Keiko had decided to sit with Jean, who was sitting next to the captain of the football team, and her boyfriend, Duncan Matthews.

"It seems that Keiko is trying to get into the popular cliques," Kurama speculated, looking over to where Keiko and Jean were sitting, "I suppose Jean is also popular here."

"Yep, little miss soccer star…" Rogue told Kurama, after swallowing a piece of her hamburger, "Little miss perfect over there is dating the football star…"

"Now Rogue, that isn't very nice," Scott told the Goth sternly, and everyone looked over to him.

"So, is there anything happening between Scott and Jean," Yusuke whispered into Kurt's ear.

"Ja, but ever since Jean started dating Duncan, Scott has been pushed out of her mind," Kurt told him, "Scott's never been able to get her out of his mind."

Kuwabara was gobbling up some French fries when a girl with blonde hair, pretty face, pink button shirt and jeans walked into the cafeteria. His mouth opened slightly, and then he noticed the four guys following her. One had brown long hair, brown vest, black shirt and jeans. One was huge, really huge, and fat and had a Mohawk. Another was hunched over, wearing grungy clothing and had an awful smell. The final one had white hair spiky hair, black shirt and pants. The blonde hair girl walked over to them listening to her walkman.

"So, who's the new blood?" she asked, still listening to her music.

"Hey Tabitha," Kitty said drolly, "Yes, this is Yusuke Urameshi…"

"Hey…" Yusuke waved slightly, like he wasn't even noticing her presence.

"Shuichi Minamino…" Kitty continued, pointing over to Kurama, who was sitting next to Rogue.

"Hello…" Kurama muttered as he continued reading his book.

"And drooling boy over there is Kuwabara," Yusuke finished, and Evan began to poke Kuwabara's arm.

"Hey, dude, wake up…" Evan poked the still speechless Kuwabara, "Uh, Tabitha, I think you broke him."

"Okay…so, who's the brown haired girl sitting with Jean and the football star?" Tabitha asked, pointing over to the popular table.

"That's Keiko…" Yusuke replied, "Guess she wants to be really popular like she was back in Sarayashiki Junior High…"

"Cool, so, what are your powers?" Tabitha asked.

"I can manipulate plant life," Kurama replied, turning a page in his book.

"I can enhance my strength, speed, and agility by using my Spirit Energy. Plus, I can fire a blast of Spirit Energy threw my finger, it's called the Spirit Gun," Yusuke replied, "Oh, and I can make my punches hurt more by powering them up with my spirit power."

"And what can Kuwabara do?" Tabitha asked innocently.

"Yo, Kuwabara, wake up!" Evan smacked Kuwabara on the side of the head, waking him up.

"Uh, what?" Kuwabara asked as he snapped out of the trance.

"Dude, she wanted to know your powers man," Evan replied, pointing to Tabitha.

"Uh, yeah right!" Kuwabara then looked at Tabitha again, "If my Spirit Energy was working now, I could form energy swords in my hands."

"That sounds cool," Tabitha said, and Kuwabara began to blush wildly, "Oh, what are Keiko's powers?"

"She doesn't have any, yet," Yusuke replied, "Genkai think she has, so the Professor wanted her to come along."

"Who's Genkai?" Tabitha inquired.

"The new slave driver," Evan replied, looking down at his food, "I mean, she is like Logan, but about 100 times worse."

"Ouch," Tabitha cringed, remembering Logan's training sessions, "Well, nice talking to ya. Bye!"

"Yeah, bye," the group said casually, well except for Kuwabara, who had gone back into his coma.

"Kuwabara, she's gone now," Yusuke told his taller friend, then snapped his fingers in Kuwabara's face.

"Wow…" Kuwabara said dreamily, as he watched Tabitha walk away.

"I think he has gotten over Yukina…" Kurama whispered to Yusuke, Scott, and Kurt.

"Yeah, good thing too, Hiei didn't seem to like Kuwabara hitting on his sister," Yusuke replied quietly, letting Kurt, Scott, and Evan hear that.

"You guys mentioned something called the Dark Tournament," Scott said, changing the subject, "What was it exactly."

"Ja, I would like to hear more about vhat," Kurt added, and Yusuke sighed.

"Just pray that you guys don't get involved in something like the Dark Tournament like we did…" Yusuke started, and the X-Men nodded, "It was basically going threw Hell. We were forced into fighting it, because of the former champion, Toguro."

"How did Toguro force ya all?" Rogue asked, and Yusuke sighed again.

"He threatened to kill us, and our families," Yusuke replied sadly, "He blackmailed Kurama and Hiei into joining our team too. Toguro considered it a 'privilege' for us to be joining the Tournament, but it wasn't. We got battered, beaten, bruised, and nearly killed by the demon combatants. We did make allies on the other teams after beating them though, like Rinku, Touya, Chou, and Jin."

"Continue," Scott said, getting a little eager to hear more.

"Here comes the really dark part," Yusuke began, taking a big gulp of air and grimaced, "Genkai gave me her Spirit Wave orb to make me stronger. It weakened her though, by a lot. After we got into the finals against Team Toguro, Toguro wanted to settle his score with Genkai, and she was killed by his overwhelming power. If she didn't give me her Spirit Wave orb, she could've stood a chance…"

"Wait, Genkai is alive today, and like Toguro killed her?" Kitty interjected, and Yusuke sighed.

"For our prize of winning the Dark Tournament, Koenma revived Genkai," Kurama explained, "Now, please continue telling them Yusuke."

"Right…" Yusuke sighed, and folded his arms, "We fought Team Toguro. Kurama was first up against Karasu, and even though he killed that sick demon, we lost the match due to a technicality. Hiei defeated Bui, but refused to kill him, I think it was because Hiei had too much fun during the fight. Kuwabara defeated Toguro's older and sicker brother, only to be revealed that he hadn't killed that…thing…because before my fight with the younger Toguro, the muscle bound one, he appeared saying that he liquefied and hid under the arena so he wouldn't have been killed. The younger Toguro wanted a fair fight, so he killed his older brother to make it so. I fought him, and after taking off my spirit cuffs, and beating him down when he was only at 80 of his full power, I got my ass handed to me when he went 100. Then, he 'killed' Kuwabara to unlock my hidden strength, and I fought him easily. We both went to our max and beyond in power, and I killed him with one final Spirit Gun."

"Vhoa…" Kurt gasped in awe.

"He seemed happy to die, probably because he was sick of what he had become, but I guess I'll never find out since he's dead," Yusuke said, then he leaned back in his chair, "I guess he wasn't such a bad guy after all, since he spared Kuwabara's life."

"Now that is something," Scott said, and the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, "Hey, talk later, okay Yusuke and Kuwabara?"

"Yeah," Yusuke replied, giving the older boy thumbs up, and then they walked to their classes.


	5. First Day of School: Part 2

Chapter 5: First Day of School: Part 2

The next class was chemistry, and Yusuke, Keiko, Kurt, Kitty, Evan, and Kurama had the class together. It seems that the freshmen, sophomore, and junior classes had this class together for some reason. Keiko had decided to sit next to Kitty, Kurama was sitting with Yusuke, and Evan was sitting with another student. This was also, Hank McCoy's former class.

"So, who's the teacher here?" Keiko asked Kitty.

"Well, there have been a string of substitutes ever since Hank's…uh…accidental transformation…" Kitty replied, and then looked over to the desk, "He was a really good teacher too."

"I heard there was a new teacher coming in soon," Evan told his friends, "Just hope he isn't too stingy."

The students continued to chat, and then Principal Kelly walked in followed by a man, probably in his thirties, he had brown hair, had glasses, orange shirt and a green tie, and business pants. Yusuke tried to hide a snicker, because this guy looked like a total dork!

"This is your new teacher, he was a former physicist for the government, you probably heard of him. His name is Dr. Robert Bruce Banner," Principal Kelly explained, "Please, show him the up most respect, and try to learn something."

Principal Kelly walked out the door, leaving Mr. Banner with his new class. The new teacher put his books down, and pushed his glasses up.

"Hello, class, my name is Robert Bruce Banner, but you can leave out the Robert part if you will," Mr. Banner began, making the class chuckle, "I heard you had a pretty good teacher here before, Henry McCoy, I read some of his papers back at the lab I used to work at. I hope I can be as good of a teacher as him."

Bruce went to his desk, and took out the attendance list, "Well, it looks like I'm not the only new person here today, will you three introduce yourselves please?"

"Yusuke Urameshi, number one punk of Sarayashiki Junior High," Yusuke announced, and the whole class laughed.

""My name is Keiko Yukimura, nice to meet you all," Keiko got out of her seat, and bowed in respect to Mr. Banner.

"Thank you, Miss Yukimura, but you don't need to bow," Mr. Banner said respectively, "Now please, take your seat."

"My name is Shuichi Minamino, Mr. Banner," Kurama informed the new teacher.

"Thank you, Shuichi, now please everyone, let's get started," Mr. Banner then passed a chemistry book to all three of his new students, "Turn to chapter 3, and review the table of elements. Then, take the rest of the class to do other work from other classes, or you can listen to music."

"Hey, I think I like this guy," Yusuke whispered to Kurama, after he put his name into the text book, "He's definitely better then the teachers back at home."

"Indeed," Kurama said, "Even at my old school, there were bad teachers, more concerned with test scores and the school's reputation more than the students."

"Tell me about it," Yusuke added, "Iwamoto always got on my case, even when I did nothing wrong. He even sunk so low to steal a kid's expensive pen then try to frame me for doing the theft."

"Like, sounds like a teacher I wouldn't like to have," Kitty whispered, and Yusuke nodded.

"Hope he's on the streets now, since he and his buddy Akashi were fired the yesterday," Yusuke then snickered, "Ha, they deserved it. They mocked me at my wake!"

"Okay, Yusuke, let's just finish this section and we can talk some more," Kurama told Yusuke, who sighed and just continued reading his book.

The school day was almost over, and when the period bell rang, Yusuke met with Kuwabara and they started walking down the hall to their next class. Kuwabara had to pick up something at his locker, and Yusuke tagged along with him. Before they left the four guys that were with Tabitha during lunch appeared behind them.

"So, you guys are the new X-Geeks, huh?" the big one, Fred Dukes grinned while cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah, so what?" Yusuke retorted, since he was not intimidated by Fred's size, "Just move out of our way, wide load."

"Tabitha said you guys have some pretty cool powers; want to test them against us?" the one with brown hair, Lance Alvers asked with a smart look on his face.

"Anytime," Yusuke replied, then the smell from the one crouching hit him, "Whoa…gross…do you ever wash man? I've smelt demons that lived in the sewers better than you!"

"Yeah, so what? I don't bathe, yo," the grungy one, Todd Tolansky replied, "I did take a shower yesterday, and I only do that once a month."

"I…suggest…you…should…shower…more…" Kuwabara said between coughs, "You stink!"

"Well, you get used to it," the white haired one, Pietro Maximoff, told Kuwabara and Yusuke, who were still cringing, and then he ran over to their backsides at super speed, "But, if you do beat them up, you won't be able to touch me…"

"I'm not so sure about that, because you're not nearly as fast as Hiei," Yusuke said ominously, and he followed Pietro's movements easily, "I could follow you."

"Yeah, you want to bet on that?" Pietro started, then the bell rang, "Urameshi was it, we'll settle this after school."

"Sure, whatever," Yusuke said, not caring, and he and Kuwabara walked off to their last class.

Kurama was walking with Rogue, and Scott, since they all had class together. It was English III, and the new book that they were starting was _Macbeth_ by William Shakespeare. Kurama smirked, his favorite titles were written by the great Shakespeare.

"Now, you will all be excited to know, we have a new student in the class," the teacher told them, "His name is Shuichi Minamino, and he comes from Sarayashiki Senior High in Tokyo Japan. I hope you will enjoy my class."

"Sure hope I will," Kurama bowed in respect, and the teacher did the same, "He seems to respect his students."

"Yeah, he's the best here now, since Hank…uh…left…" Rogue whispered to him, "Mr. Michael's does the school plays…ah was paired with Scott before…"

"Sounds like you had fun," Kurama joked quietly, and she shed a small smile.

"Well, it was before she joined our side," Scott interjected, "Even though we had fun, she still regarded us, and me, as an enemy."

"You weren't always on the same side?" Kurama asked, getting confused.

"Well, Mystique tricked meh," Rogue started, "She's a shape shifter, and took tha forms of tha X-Men, and attacked meh. She deceived meh into believin' they were my enemies, but, during a field trip she tried to kill both meh and Scott, and Ah had to drive her off. After that, I joined the X-Men at tha Institute."

"What happened to her? Where is she now?" Kurama asked, starting to want to learn more about his new friends.

"Did the Professor, Hank, or the others tell you about Asteroid M?" Scott replied, and he nodded.

"I only know that Asteroid M was created by Magneto, and had a facility in it using special crystals to enhance mutant abilities," Kurama told him, and Scott gave a sigh of relief.

"Well, while we were fleeing from M, Magneto had locked Mystique in the enhancing chamber, and to save the world from extinction, my brother, Alex, used both our enhanced powers to completely destroy the asteroid," Scott continued, "We think that she died in the explosion of the asteroid. But, Mystique is, or was crafty, she could've escaped."

"Hopefully she has," Kurama said, and his fox senses started acting up, "Some one approaches…"

"Hey Rogue, how's it doing?" the person, Risty Wilde, who was best friends with Rogue, "Who's tha new guy?"

"Uh, his name's Shuichi, just arrived last night at tha Institute," Rogue told her friend, "There were two otha guys as well, and one gal. They're freshmen, and come from Sarayah…iki…Junior High in Japan, and Shuichi comes from the senior high in Japan."

"Cool," Risty interjected, then faced Kurama, "Hello love, my name's Risty."

"Nice to meet you…" Kurama said cautiously, and he shook Risty's hand, waiting for his spirit and fox senses to go off, which they did, but it was only when the extremely smelly kid from lunch hopped in, 'Guess he's been setting me off…'

"Where's tha teacher, yo?" the smelly toad like Todd Tolansky asked, carrying some papers, "Mrs. Kari needs him to sign some papers for him yo."

"Mr. Tolansky, I'm over here, now bring the papers over here and please return to class."

Todd walked over, and dropped the sheets of paper, and hopped out of the room like a frog.

The class passed on slowly, but Kurama didn't seem to notice. He thought that Yusuke and Kuwabara were sure noticing, since they hated school. Flipping the page in his book, he took a glance at Rogue for a second, and then went back to his reading. He couldn't place it, but there was…a connection…of some sorts between them. It was the same type of connection that Scott felt whenever Jean was around, and it was worrying him.

At 2:30 PM, the last bell rang, signaling that school was done for the day. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko met Kurama, Scott, and Rogue in the parking lot. Kurt, Kitty, and Evan came walking up to them a few minutes later.

"So, Yusuke, Kuwabara, how was your first day at Bayville High?" Keiko asked, as she looked over to them.

"Fine, I guess. Sure is a hell of a lot better than Sarayashiki, teachers actually want to help you learn something," Yusuke replied, "Hey, Scott, where's Jean?"

"Soccer practice just going to wait here if she wants a ride. Duncan probably won't do it, probably hanging out with his friends," Scott shrugged, and then he started walking to the field, "I'm going to watch her…hey, she needs someone to support her."

As Scott walked off, both Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded. They saw Duncan and his friends were following Scott, and went to help out their new friend. Yusuke told the others to go, since they wanted to see Jean practice.

Jean was too busy practicing with her teammates to notice who was watching her. From a nearby tree, Yusuke and Kuwabara watched her, Scott, and Duncan and his friends. Scott hadn't noticed Duncan, and Yusuke didn't like the look on the jock's face. Duncan and his friends chuckled, and one was cracking his knuckles. Scott had got up, and was walking back to the school because he forgotten something, and Duncan and his friends slowly took chase, not to draw suspicion from the coaches.

"Looks like the low-lives are going to make their move," Kuwabara said to Yusuke.

"Yeah…let's go," Yusuke and Kuwabara both leapt off the branches of the tree with ease, and began tailing Duncan and his friends.

When Scott walked out of the school, he was carrying a book. Then, out of nowhere, a punch made contact with his face sending him crashing to the ground. He then looked up to see the grinning face of Duncan Matthews.

"Say Summers, we have a little score to settle," Duncan grinned, as his friends picked Scott up, and put him in a head lock, "Now, let's see how you look without your fancy glasses."

Scott grimaced as Duncan pulled his ruby quartz sun-glasses off, "Matthews, give those back!"

"Hey, maybe Jean will like me even more with shades like these," Duncan grinned, "They're too good for you, Summers."

Duncan then uppercutted Scott in the solar plexus, making the vision impaired mutant cough up some blood. The football star smirked, and then threw a hook punch aimed at Scott's face.

"Come on, Summers, this can't be all you are!" Duncan sneered, and then picked up Scott by his chin, "She is always talking about you, and I am tired of it. I can see why that **airhead** would like you, but let me see those eyes. I like the sorry assed guys to look at me when I am beating on them."

The airhead comment about Jean struck a nerve, but Summers refused to open his eyes, "Just get a life, Duncan, and leave me alone."

"But that would be no fun, hey, why don't my friends join in on your beating?" Duncan nodded, but before he and his other friends who weren't holding Scott could, he saw two people standing behind them, "Looks like we have an audience."

"I don't like it when my friends are jumped," the one with slick backed black hair, Yusuke Urameshi commented.

"You call yourselves men? Ambushes are for the weak and cowardly," the tall one with orange hair, Kazuma Kuwabara added.

"So, I guess you two want some too?" Duncan smirked, "Deal with them; I'm not done with Summers."

Duncan's cronies then charged Yusuke and Kuwabara head on. They easily avoided the charge by moving out of the way and slamming their fists into the jocks' stomachs. They were one hit knockouts, and more of Duncan's friends went to attack Yusuke and Kuwabara. Blocking a punch, Yusuke knocked out one with a back fist. Kuwabara stepped back, and knocked two of their heads together. In a matter of minutes, Duncan's friends, except the ones holding Scott were bloodied and knocked out.

"You think you could beat us? We've been street fighting ever since we could walk," Kuwabara announced, still cracking his knuckles.

"Now, are you going to leave Scott alone and give him back his glasses, or do I have to beat your face in?" Yusuke asked sternly, and he began to walk to the captain of the football team.

"Hell no! Like a freshman like you could beat me!" Duncan then threw Scott's glasses to one of his friends, "Keep these safe, I'm going to mess this punk up."

Yusuke didn't even take a guard as Duncan charged him. The jock threw out a reverse punch, and the spirit detective caught his fist. Duncan grimaced as Yusuke began to squeeze, and the jock reached into his pocket.

"I admit, you're good," Duncan commented, and he stepped back, and took out a switchblade, "But not good enough, kid."

"Weapons on school grounds, guess this is more like home than I thought," Yusuke retorted, dodging the swift jabs from the switchblade, "Guess you never learned how to knife fight."

"What?" Duncan asked as Yusuke's fist plowed into his eye, "**Agh!**"

Duncan fell to the ground, and his eye swelled up immediately. He rubbed it, and went to grab the knife. Yusuke stomped on it, and broke the blade.

"You could poke an eye out, you know," Yusuke joked, and Kuwabara went to deal with the guys holding Scott.

"Hey, Scott, want some help?" Kuwabara asked as Scott smirked.

"No thanks, I can deal with these guys," Scott replied, as he threw out his elbows into the two jocks' ribs, making them let go of him and fall to the ground. Scott then bent down and took his glasses out of the jock's hand, "I think these belong to me."

Principal Kelly then walked out of the front door, and was shocked at what he saw, "Mr. Summers, Mr. Urameshi, Mr. Kuwabara, what happened here?"

"Th-they attacked me…" Duncan started, "Me and my f-friends were doing nothing…"

"I didn't address you, Mr. Matthews," Principal Kelly said sternly, "Now, what happened here?"

"Scott went back to the school to get a book while Jean was practicing," Yusuke began, "Kuwabara and I noticed Duncan and his gang here start to follow him, and we wanted to see what was up."

"Continue," Principal Kelly told Yusuke.

"Well, we saw that Duncan and his gang here had ambushed and ganged up on Scott, and Duncan was beating the crap out of him," Kuwabara continued, "My gang at home would never do that by the way, we had honor, and promises between men."

"Okay," Principal Kelly then walked over to Yusuke, who had his foot over a knife, "Whose is this?"

"T-Theirs Mr. Kelly!" Duncan pointed, trying not to have more of the blame on him.

"Is that so?" Principal Kelly asked suspiciously, then he looked at the two initials on the hilt, "Then why is your name on it?"

"Uh…"

"Mr. Matthews, you and your gang report first thing in the morning to my office for punishment, and you will have a few days dealing with police for this," Principal Kelly told the jock sternly, "Your coach will know that he needs a new captain by the way."

Duncan and his gang stripped of their team jackets by Principal Kelly, who then turned to Yusuke and Kuwabara, "Now, although I don't approve of your methods at stopping them, I won't be punishing you. Like I said, if you didn't start the fight, you won't get penalized. Now, Jean's practice is almost over, you can go over to pick her up now, Mr. Summers."

"Thank you, Mr. Kelly," Scott said gratefully, and he, Yusuke, and Kuwabara walked back to the field.

Jean was sitting on the bench and was drinking water when she noticed Scott, Yusuke, and Kuwabara. She was a little tired from a hard day of practice, and wondered where Duncan was, since he usually gave her an ride back to the Institute.

"Hey…guys, how are-Scott, what happened?" Jean asked as she went up to her friend.

"He was ambushed," Yusuke told her, "By Duncan and his gang. If it wasn't for us, he would be much worse off."

"Duncan ambushed you? Why?" Jean asked, and then she read her friend's mind, "No…I…couldn't see who he really was…"

"If I didn't know better, Duncan looked like he was going to kill Scott today," Kuwabara told her, "He had a switchblade which he tried to use against Yusuke."

"He didn't know how to knife fight, but to a guy who couldn't fight back, it would have been enough to seriously injure Scott or even worse," Yusuke told her, and Jean looked over to him.

"He had no honor. He wasn't a man," Kuwabara told her, "Real men to attack with overwhelming numbers like cowards. They fight one on one, no matter what."

Jean then gulped, and looked over to the school, where there were sirens. None of the boys that Duncan had brought along with him were seriously hurt by Yusuke and Kuwabara, and were being escorted into the cop cars.

"He called you an airhead, and it looked like he only wanted you for your body, Jean," Scott said to her, and she softly cried into his shoulder, "Let's…go home."

They all got into Scott's car, and drove off for the Institute. It was a big day for all of them.


	6. Dark Alliance

Chapter 6: Dark Alliance

**Mushyori City, Japan**

In an underground section of Mushyori City, five men and two boys have gathered. There was a toxic pool of water, where a magical ship was floating with the man with green hair.

"It seems that the Spirit Detective has left…" one of the men said, he had a dot on his head and was tall and wore black clothing and had black hair.

"This is perfect, that means our plan can go on unabated," the one wearing a lab coat said, and he pushed up his glasses.

"The hole will be open ahead of time with them gone," the man with green hair, who was floating on the boat, commented.

"No, the defenders of humanity need to see us open the hole to the demon world," the man with all black clothing said as he came into the light, "The only problem now is where did he go?"

"Perhaps I can help…" a voice said from out of no where, and the seven looked around.

"Whose there?"

"Relax, I am no enemy…" a man wearing purple armor and floated into the room, followed by a raggedy man, "My name is Eric Magnus Lehnsherr, but you may call me Magneto."

"And what do you want here?" the man with black clothing asked calmly, and stepped forward.

"We both have mutual goals," Magneto began, "And I have been watching you for quite some time, Black Angel, or should I say, Shinobu Sensui?"

"Hm, very perceptive," Sensui started, and he walked forward, "So, Magneto, what do you propose?"

"One of my colleagues could tell you where the Spirit Detective and his friends are," Magneto started, as a woman with red hair, blue skin, and a black one piece suit walked out of the shadows, "May I introduce Mystique."

"The Spirit Detective and his friends are in the town of Bayville, New York," Mystique told Sensui and his followers, "They are getting schooling from Charles Xavier, who runs the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters."

"It seems we have much to discuss…" Sensui said as he began walking further into the cave complex, "Please, follow me…"

Magneto nodded, and he, Magneto, and the shagged man named Sabertooth followed him, with the rest of Sensui's followers. The cave let out into the middle of a city, near an apartment complex. Mystique shape shifted into a normal looking woman as she followed them. Up in the apartment complex, in a room near the roof, Sensui unlocked the door and walked in.

There was a aquarium….with a floating head and hand in it…but they still seemed to be alive! Sensui walked over into the kitchen area and turned on the light.

"Tea?" Sensui asked, and Magneto nodded as he took off his helmet.

"Yes, of course," Magneto replied as he took off his helmet and went to a nearby table.

"Who's the new player?" the head in the aquarium asked.

"They may be new allies, Toguro," Sensui told the head, who just snickered as more of it's tissue regenerated over his eye.

"Toguro? I thought he died in the Dark Tournament," Magneto inquired as the boy with blonde hair handed him a cup of tea.

"I'm his older brother, and thanks to him almost vaporizing me, I am almost immortal," the older Toguro explained, grinning slyly in the aquarium.

"So, what do you intend to do, Shinobu?" Mystique asked, "What was that hole in that cave?"

"It was a gateway to the Demon World, Mystique," Sensui explained, then he took a sip of the tea that he made, "After the gateway is ready, all that we need is a psychic powerful enough to literally cut through the dimensions. He, or she, would have to have the mythical Dimension Sword."

"There have been many psychics turning out lately, but none of them has the ability to do the Dimension sword," the blue haired man, Iztuki explained.

"The demons beyond that Kakai Barrier are the strongest in Demon World. They are the A, S, and Super S class demons, and are more powerful than a thousand armies. If unleashed, the world would be plunged into darkness," Sensui explained, and he leaned down near the table where they were all sitting at, and a shadow covered his eyes, "Every last dirty human being would be devoured…"

"But, could these demons be controlled?" Magneto asked, and Sensui looked over to him, "The mutant race must be protected, since we would inherit the Earth after the A and S class demons destroy the world."

"I see you're point," Sensui said, surprising his followers, "Humans are the evil here, but from what I've seen or heard of mutants, they aren't."

"Excellent…" Magneto grinned wickedly.

**BAYVILLE, XAVIER INSTITUTE**

The new students, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Keiko were watching television in the living room with Kitty, Kurt, Evan, and Scott. Kuwabara and Evan were playing Soul Caliber II, while Yusuke dosed off. Scott had a special bandage on his lip, one that Hank had invented so it wouldn't get infected.

"Hey Scott, where's Jean?" Keiko asked, starting to worry about her friend.

"Still up in her room…" Scott replied, with a tint of sadness in his voice, "She is still shocked on what Duncan did to me…"

"Can't blame her, can you?" Kurama told them, "I mean, she had strong feelings for Duncan, but he was only going to use her and discard her. Then, he attacked you, Scott, and she saw who Duncan really was, and it shocked her."

"Scott, I think you better go up and talk to her," Professor Xavier said as he entered the room, "I think I need to talk with Yusuke and Kuwabara by their actions."

"So wake up, punk," Logan growled, and Genkai walked up behind her pupil.

"Dimwit! You better get your ass up!" Genkai yelled into Yusuke's ears, waking him up.

"Oy, what the hell was that for grandma?" Yusuke asked, and then yawned, "I was trying to catch some zzz's."

"I need to talk about your method," Professor Xavier told him sternly, "Now, please follow me to the office."

Yusuke and Kuwabara followed the Professor, Logan, Ororo, and Genkai into Xavier's office. Wheeling himself behind his desk, Xavier put his hands together and leaned forward.

"Now, I don't condemn you for helping out Scott…" the Professor began, "But you could have really hurt them. You should have talked them down, and I hope you didn't use your powers."

"We didn't professor," Yusuke told Charles, "Just basic fighting skills that we learned back at home."

"I didn't even use have my strength to beat them," Kuwabara added.

"That's good," the Professor said to them, "You are dismissed."

Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded, and walked out of the room. Professor Xavier then wheeled to the window, and sighed.

"I fear something ominous on the horizon…" Charles said, looking up to the sky, "Like a dark presence has made itself known…"

"So, you're starting to feel it too, Charles," Genkai interjected, and she walked up to his left, "Hopefully Koenma will be sending Botan to fill us in soon."

"Koenma?" Charles asked, "You've mentioned him before, who is he?"

"He is the son of King Enma, the ruler of Spirit World," Genkai explained, "You see, Yusuke died once before, got ran over by a car while saving a child. Koenma put him through a couple of ordeals to bring him back, and at the stroke of midnight a year ago, Keiko kissed him to transfer her life-force into his body and reawaken him."

"Interesting, that would explain how Yusuke got his powers, since he hasn't been seen on Cerebro," Charles put his hand over his chin, "So, what do you think this feeling is?"

"It could be an opening of a gateway to Demon World," Genkai told him, "But, to be felt this far away would mean it the gateway portal would have opened quite a bit, almost 1.3 kilometers."

"That big? And what would open it?" Charles asked.

"A powerful psychic," Genkai told him as she looked to the ground, "We might have to start getting prepared for the worse."

"How did Kurama get through without a portal?" Charles asked.

"He and Hiei got through temporary portals threw the pseudo-space between dimensions. They don't open frequently, every fifty years or so," Genkai replied, "They psychic that is making this hole however must be powerful, almost as powerful as you."

"That's a little unsettling Genkai," Charles said nervously, "This is probably the reason why you wanted Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara to come here, for more training to deal with this threat."

"Yes, it was," Genkai told him sternly, "But, we all have to be ready. That is why I am also training your X-Men even harder than the slacker Logan. We all need to be ready for this fight."

"I think I can call upon some allies to assist us," Charles told her, "The person who helped me build the Danger Room, Cerebro, and helped me acquire Velocity and the Blackbird…."

"And who is this?" Genkai asked.

"It was Tony Stark," Charles told her, "He is also known as Iron Man, and would be able to help us out."

"You should contact him then," Genkai told him, and started to walk to the door, "I'm going to give the kids another session in my training, since your Danger Room is still in need of repair."

Charles smiled warmly as his old friend closed the door behind her, "Don't go too hard on them, they still have school!"

**MUSHYORI CITY, JAPAN, SENSUI'S HEADQUARTERS**

Magneto began to orate what was next in his agenda, "Sensui, I propose an alliance."

"An alliance?" Sensui asked, becoming unsure.

"We are better than the human race, and deserve to rule," Magneto told him, "Human beings would persecute us like dogs, they would fear us, and try to exterminate us."

"Those are valid points Eric," Sensui sat back in his chair, "Mutants and people that are weaker than us would try to persecute and exterminate the mutant race, but I am still not sure."

"In Bayville, you may be able to open a larger portal to the Demon World then here," Magneto offered, "Just imagine it, thousands of powerful demons storming through a populated city, destroying the human filth."

"Yes, that would be interesting," Sensui then looked at Magneto, "But, the Spirit Detective and the world's most powerful psychic are living in Bayville, there will be no way to get in unnoticed."

"You're overestimating Charles Xavier," Mystique told Sensui, "I have been impersonating one of his student's friends for a little over two months now, and he still hasn't caught on. You will be able to open the portal virtually unseen."

"But, we would need to do things in secret, how would we throw Charles off our tail?" Sensui asked, and Magneto looked over to Sensui's youngest followers.

"Sea Man and Game Master would go to the Brotherhood House in Bayville," Magneto told him, "We need to keep undercover until the tunnel is opened, if you accept my offer that is."

"Secrecy would be a benefit to our cause," Sensui then looked over to his followers, "What would they do at the Brotherhood house?"

"They would try to blend in and not cause suspicion from normal humans," Mystique replied, putting down her cup of tea, "They would go to the schools in Bayville, but it would take longer than it does with Xavier's group."

"You mean we would have to go to school again," the little kid, Game Master, also known as, Tsukihito Amanumou groaned, since he hated school even before his powers manifested.

Sea Man, also known as Kiyoshi Mitari also groaned, "I don't see why I have to back to school, I hated it, the kids, the teachers, all of them…"

"You will be around other people who have powers, Kiyoshi," Mystique told him, "All mutants, hand picked by Magneto and myself."

"This offer of yours is very tempting Eric," Sensui formally said, and he put his hand to his chin, "We may have to think about it…."

"How long until I receive your decision?" Magneto asked, and Sensui pointed at the clock.

"This time tomorrow, meet us in the cave," Sensui told him, and Magneto nodded and led his followers out, "This could prove quite interesting…"

**XAVIER SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS**

Genkai had brought out all of Xavier's students into the back yard of the Institute. Everyone who had a uniform had it on, and since Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Keiko didn't have theirs yet, they were in basic workout clothes. Keiko wouldn't be participating in the exercise that Genkai had planned because her powers haven't developed yet.

"Alright, slackers! Now I am going to train you how to harness your spirit energy!" Genkai announced to the group of students in military fashion, "Because of Yusuke's display of power in the Danger Room, you will all be getting the same type of training, from me…"

Genkai began to pace back and forth, like she was telling the students to get into line. She stopped at Evan.

"Now, I understand you can form boney spikes, am I correct?" Genkai asked and Evan nodded, "Good, now, I want you to make some spikes, and put them into the ground. Make one for each student here, except for Keiko. What are you waiting for, get going!"

Evan started to grumble, and he grudgingly made spikes, all of the same length, and placed them into the ground. The other students wondered what was going to happen, but Yusuke knew. He had to do the exercise for 12 hours, and it wasn't fun. After all the spikes were in the ground, Evan walked back to the line of students.

"Now, all of you have spirit energy. Your mutant powers make it easier for you to harness it, but you can't realize it without proper training," Genkai then turned to Evan, "How long do your spikes usually last?"

"I don't know, about two to three hours," Evan replied, and Genkai smiled.

"Perfect," Genkai grinned, then she walked down to Yusuke, "Now, the dimwit here is going to demonstrate what you're doing."

Yusuke sighed, and leapt into the air. He dove down and put his finger out and aimed. Landing perfectly on top one of the spikes, he formed his spirit energy around the tip of his index finger to stay balanced.

"Now, the dimwit is used to doing this, using a pin back at my temple he balanced for six hours each day to increase his power and control. Now, it is all your turn," Genkai told them, and the student's mouths widened in surprise, "What are you waiting for? Hop to it!"

Kurama jumped into the air like Yusuke did, and did the same thing that he did, landing perfectly on the spike and forming the spirit energy on his finger for balance. Kurt teleported himself upside down onto one of the spikes, with his finger on the spike, he used his tail for balance, and tried to do what Yusuke and Kurama were doing, but couldn't seem to do it.

Jean was next, and she floated into the air, and landed with ease on the spike. She managed to get her finger to glow, but it wasn't nearly as bright as Yusuke's or Kurama's glowing digit. Kuwabara took a deep breath, leapt into the air and misaimed; he crashed onto the ground and almost hit the spike. Logan chuckled deeply as Kuwabara got onto his feet, and tried again, and this time he did land on it with his finger, but slipped off for lack of balance. It went basically the same way for most of the other students; only Jubilee, Amara, Ray, Bobby, Rogue, and Scott were able to get balanced on the spikes.

Then, the waiting began. The students who couldn't balance on the bone spikes sat on the sidelines, as the minutes ticked away. The sun moved slowly as the students who managed to get onto the spikes tried to keep their balance. Even Kurama was starting to struggle by the end of the second hour.

Beads of sweat were forming on Jubilee's forehead, and she dropped, not able to stay on the spike. Then Ray started to slip, the electricity on his finger disappeared, and he fell off the spike. Bobby almost got away with freezing himself onto the spike so he couldn't even move off, until Genkai side kicked him off of the spike for cheating. Amara fell down a half an hour later, almost completely exhausted for using her powers for that long amount of time. Then, it was down to just Jean, Kurt, Scott, Rogue, Kurama, and Yusuke.

Scott, even though he was doing well, was getting tired. The spike had started digging into his finger, and blood was dripping down it. He focused all his energy into his finger, trying not to sink any lower onto the spike. This had got to be the hardest exercise he ever done in his life.

Jean was doing as well as Kurama and Yusuke since she had been honing her telekinetic powers with the Professor for a couple years now. She was amazed that she actually got her spirit energy into her finger, since she only knew such a power existed a few days ago. She could do this, and would make it through the last hour, which was coming up.

Rogue, who didn't have the same type of powers as Yusuke, Kurama, or Jean, was doing remarkably well. She had a great center of balance which kept her from falling, and she had actually formed one of those spirit power buffers on her finger. She was, however, starting to feel the effects of staying on the spike for two hours, and fatigue was setting in, but she didn't want to give up and she sucked it up and kept persevering.

Kurt was starting to loose his balance, but by changing the direction of his tail he was able to regain it. He did this sort of thing back in his hometown, especially when the circus was in town. When he was younger, the kids would watch him as he balanced on poles, and they weren't afraid of him when he performed. Now, the strange spirit energy that he had been told about had gathered on his finger, and was helping him even more to keep his balance.

Kurama was starting to get bored, which was abnormal for him since he usually had a long patience factor. He balanced perfectly on the spike without moving and inch, and was watching the grass grow. His demon energy was making it grow faster, but not fast enough for him. He gazed over to his friends and saw the only one not really struggling was Yusuke, he had actually fallen asleep!

'He must have gotten used to this,' Kurama thought as he looked to Yusuke, 'He did train in his sleep during the ride to Hangman Island, beating up those demons while sleep walking.'

The minutes ticked on, and right when three hours were up, Genkai walked up to the group.

"Alright! That's enough for today!" Genkai yelled, walking Yusuke up, "You can all get down now."

Rogue, Scott, Jean, and Kurt gave a sigh of relief, and fell down to the ground. Kurama then leapt into the air, and landed on his feet. He then felt compelled to help out Rogue, who was clearly exhausted from the exercise.

"Here, let me help you up," Kurama said as he bent down to Rogue with his hand out.

"Thank you, Kurama," Rogue replied as she grabbed his hand, and was pulled up.

Yusuke then went over and helped Scott, Jean, and Kurt up, and Genkai went over to them.

"That was a very nice for your first try everyone, but you all will have to be able to stay on those spikes for three hours, then once we get some permanent ones, we will upgrade it to six hours, then nine hours, the final part is 12 full hours on those spikes," Genkai explained, "In a few weeks, I'll also give you all the Spirit Cuffs, which will also enhance your strength and keep your body, spirit energy, and mind in tip top shape."

"Not the Spirit Cuffs again…" Yusuke groaned, remembering how he fought Toguro with them on, but it did actually help him until Toguro increased his power to 100.

"Now, prepare yourselves, I am not going to baby you like Logan did," Genkai told them, which caught Logan's attention, "After school, you'll spend the first few hours training before supper, then after supper you will have the rest of the night off."

The students groaned, not liking the sound of straight after school a exercise like this again. Genkai, Logan, Ororo, and Hank then led the students back into the mansion for some much needed rest.

**MUSHYORI CITY, JAPAN, 10:00 PM**

Magneto, Mystique, and Sabertooth arrived back at the cave where they first met Sensui. The demon insects seem to be in less numbers than before, and that could only mean one thing; the gateway was being closed.

"Ah, so you have taken me up on my offer," Magneto calmly surveyed, seeing Iztuki floating on the water, "How long will it take for this portal to close?"

"About a month, since that is how long it took for us to get it this big," Sensui replied, "And yes, we have decided to ally ourselves with you. Your resources will make our operation unstoppable."

"Excellent, Mystique will start making arrangements for Kiyoshi and Tsukihito to move to the Brotherhood House in Bayville New York," Magneto told Sensui, "It will take a few weeks for their passports and transcripts to be ready, so be prepared to move the operation in a month."

"Of course, Iztuki will have this portal closed, and then we can relocate," Sensui grinned, "I was thinking of moving my part of the operation somewhere close to Bayville, probably Albany, or maybe Manhattan."

"It doesn't matter to me, there are a few mutants in New York however," Magneto told Sensui, "Now, let's start making preparations, and I think I have a gift for the older Toguro…."

"That is?" Sensui asked, starting to get intrigued by what Magneto could have.

"It is called a symbiote, an alien life-form that bonds with a host organism, and makes it stronger, faster, etc," Magneto replied, "It will be the perfect gift for him, don't you think?"

"Yes…" Sensui grinned evilly, as his plan for exterminating the human race started to become more real, not just a dream anymore, "Oh, I think I have a video that your followers should watch, it is from Spirit World."

"What is it?" Magneto asked.

"The Chapter Black Tape, it chronicles all the evil things that human kind has done over the centuries, that is how I got my followers, and would inspire loyalty to our cause," Sensui told him, "But, I'll keep it with me."

"Of course, it is yours after all," Magneto said, and then he turned for the exit, "I think it is time for our departure, we will meet again in a month, Shinobu Sensui."

Sensui watched as his new allies walked out of the cave, and started to grin venomously. His plan would be going faster working with Magneto, and then he would double-cross the powerful mutant, just to see him squirm…

To be continued…


	7. Tony Stark

Chapter 7: Tony Stark

**BAYVILLE, NEW YORK**

The week had passed pretty slowly, homework, Genkai's training, and the relative teenage angst was running rampant through the Institute. Good thing it was Saturday, Yusuke needed a break. He was starting to like school, which was weird, really weird, since he usually hated everything academic. With people like Jean, Hank, and the Professor, he was getting his homework done in time to do other stuff, like hang out with Keiko. Scott was really cool around him, acting like he owed both Yusuke and Kuwabara for helping him fight Duncan and his gang.

Kuwabara was still trying to regain his spiritual energy, but Logan had told him to focus more on his physical power. The Professor told him his powers would come back in time, and told him just to be patient. He was also starting to like the girl named Tabitha, and wondered why she wasn't here at the Institute.

Kurama had started getting a reputation at Bayville High; he always had girls chasing after him. It was like he was back at home, he tried to focus on his studies, but sometimes he couldn't get away from the girls. Back at the Institute, he had made some new friends, Jean, Kurt, Scott, Rogue, and this little kid named Jamie. Jamie was codenamed 'Multiple' because whenever he was hit he would make copies of himself. Kurama helped him out with his math and English when Rahne was doing her homework. Kurama was also taking a liking to Rogue, she was smart, funny, but the sad thing was she could never touch anybody because of her powers, so he decided to help her silently.

Keiko was getting used to the Institute, and Hank had done a blood test to check to see if she did have the X-Gene that hadn't been activated yet. Today she would be finding out if she did have a dormant X-Gene or not, but either way she was staying at the Institute. She had become really good friends with Jean, because she was hurting inside from Duncan's true self. She had also become friends with Kitty, who had taken her to the mall before Genkai's training started for the day. She always wondered why Yusuke was extremely tired out after the first six weeks of training, now she knew why, Genkai was a slave driver! She secretly wished that she didn't have powers, because Genkai would get on her case.

Yusuke was in the kitchen, grabbing a snack and some water after Genkai's training. He looked back to see Scott, Kuwabara, Evan, and Kurt walking into the room, completely exhausted from what Genkai made them do. He looked at the clock, and noticed it was 1:00 PM, and training did start at 7:00 AM. He took out a couple more water bottles, and saw them resting on the couch in the living room. He walked out and handed them to his friends.

"Thanks…Yusuke…how can you not be…exhausted after what Genkai put us through?" Scott panted, still tired from the ordeal that Genkai did for training.

"Ja, I mean, the balancing on Evan's spikes, the ten mile run around the mansion, the swimming, I'm vhiped!" Kurt groaned as he grabbed a water bottle from Yusuke.

"I'm just used to it," Yusuke replied, "Thing is, you can't let grandma get to you, or else she'll make the training even harder."

"You did this training before, right, Urameshi, does it get any harder?" Kuwabara asked, grabbing one of the bottles out of his friend's hand.

"Trust me, it does," Yusuke replied, and he jumped down onto the couch, "Pretty soon, she'll probably be getting Logan to rustle up some of the monsters from the Forbidden Forest back at her place for your next round of training."

"Monsters?" Kurt, Scott, and Kuwabara gasped, and Kuwabara vividly remembered the monsters and demons he encountered in the Forbidden Forest, "You got to be kidding me!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Nope, sorry," Yusuke replied, and he chugged his water bottle.

Scott sighed, and turned on the TV, quickly flipping through the channels. He then noticed something on the screen, it was the news, and was in New York.

"There has been another report of 'The Angel' today, witnesses say this strange winged man rescued a couple from a burning building," the reporter told the viewers, "And, also, another strike for the Daily Bugle's credibility, witnesses say the newest issue reports the Spider-Man stealing jewels when they noticed he was stopping the robbery…"

"The Professor isn't going to like this…" Scott mumbled, and then Yusuke noticed the Professor wheeling himself in, "Hey, Professor."

"Hello Scott, Genkai tells me that you are all progressing in your training," Charles told them, "Oh, I will be expecting a guest today, he is going to help me get everything set on the repairs and upgrades for the Danger Room."

"Who is he?" Scott asked.

"Tony Stark," Charles replied, "He helped me build the Danger Room, and also helped me acquire and upgrade the Blackbird and Velocity. He will be staying here for a few days as well, so he will know what needs to be upgraded."

"He knows about mutants?" Evan asked as the Professor caught his attention.

"Yes, he does, and he has also kept the secret ever since I met him," Charles explained, "He owns Stark Enterprises, and he backs the famous Iron Man, who works with the Avengers."

"You're kidding me…" Kuwabara gasped, since Iron Man was one of his favorite real world heroes, "Maybe he can help me with a few projects I've been thinking of…"

Kuwabara grinned as he imagined the super x-ray glasses, super loud horn and his own customized car. He thought of the possibilities, grinning widely.

"Oh, and Scott, we will deal with this Angel and Spiderman characters when it becomes a possibility that they would expose mutants," Charles told his student, "I'll keep a watch on him with Cerebro."

"Alright Professor," Scott said, and Genkai came into the room.

"Since you all have been working so hard with my training, I have decided to give you Sundays off," Genkai told them, and she saw the grin on her trainees' faces, "But don't think that I am going easy on you! On Monday, after school, you will all learn advance combat techniques with me and Logan!"

She smiled as Yusuke, Kurt, Kuwabara, Scott, and Evan shrugged, and then started to walk off.

"'Advance combat techniques' vhat does that mean?" Kurt asked as he started dreading Monday.

"It means she is going to put us all through the Spirit Power techniques…oy, she probably wants to get you guys to do the Spirit Wave and Shot Gun attacks that she taught me!" Yusuke grimaced, remembering how hard it was for him to get those techniques down.

"She probably wants to teach you basic Spirit Power control," Charles said as he wheeled further into the living room, "Yusuke, Kuwabara, could you get Kurama and come into my office, I have something to give you three."

"Sure professor, uh, what is it you want to give us?" Yusuke asked as he got off the couch.

"I think it is time you officially become part of the X-Men, Yusuke," Charles told them, and Kuwabara followed him while Yusuke went to go get Kurama.

On the other side of the mansion, Kurama, Keiko, Rogue, Jean, and Kitty were taking a break. Jean had decided to take a shower since Genkai's training had gotten her sweating. Kurama went up to his room, and changed into his casual wear. He sat on his bed and grabbed one of his books. After reading for about ten minutes, he heard a knocking on his door.

"Come in," Kurama said as he flipped another page in his book and looked up, "Oh, hello Rogue."

"Hey, Kurama," Rogue started to walk into the room, "Ah see you've gotten a little garden in here now."

"Yes, well, I thought I would put a personal touch to my room," Kurama told her, and he put his book down onto his nightstand, "And my power requires ample plant life, watch…"

In the window box and various pots that were filled with dirt or just had little sprouts in them, ferns, roses, daisies, and other plants sprouted from the soil after Kurama waved his hand over them. He then picked out a rose, cut the top off, and made it go back into its bud stage. Placing it in his hair for safe keeping, he turned to Rogue, who was in awe.

"They're…they're beautiful…" Rogue gasped, looking at the flowers that Kurama had grown, "You could definitely give Storm a run for her money."

"I did notice her garden out in the front yard, very nice," Kurama said to her, "So… I sense you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh, yeah…" Rogue blushed for a second, since she was still engrossed by the new foliage, "Ah was just wondering more about your past, Ah mean, you weren't always here, were you?"

"Well, no Rogue, I wasn't," Kurama started, "In Demon World, I was a leader of a band of thieves, we were the best, and I had many followers. Let me correct that, Yoko Kurama had many followers…"

Kurama told Rogue about the time he and his best friend and partner in crime, Kuronoe, who was a bat demon. His band of thieves were notorious in Demon World, hitting all the rich, wealthy demons since were too busy to care about the impoverished demons living in the cities and castles. Kurama's face then went dark for a moment.

"Is there something wrong, Kurama?" Rogue asked, noticing the depressed look on his face.

"I just…remembered the final heist that I and Kuronoe did…." Kurama replied sadly, "While fleeing that mansion, he dropped his pendant necklace, which belonged to his mother. He stepped right into a trap, and I watched him be impaled by bamboo spikes, and I could do nothing to save him…"

"Oh…Ah'm sorry…Ah…shouldn't have brought it up…" Rogue said, seeing the hurt in his eyes.

"No, its okay Rogue…you're the first person I've ever told," Kurama reassured her, "It felt good to get it off my chest…but I still feel guilty not being able to help him…"

"Things were out of your control, Kurama," Rogue comforted him, "Ya couldn't have done anything to help him…."

"He did tell me to run…but…" Kurama sniffled, and a tear went down his left cheek, "Thank you for trying to help me Rogue, you're a true friend."

"Not a problem," Rogue told him, then she got up, "Ah have to go now, it was nice talking to ya."

"Likewise," Kurama replied cheerfully, and then something caught his attention.

"Something wrong, Kurama?" Rogue asked, and she looked out the window to see a man with black spiky hair with a white highlight in the middle, and dressed in all black clothes and had a katana strapped onto his waist, "Ah!"

"Calm down Rogue," Kurama reassured her, "So I see you followed us."

"Yes, I'm surprised Koenma didn't stop me."

"Who…is he?" Rogue asked, and she started stepping back.

"He's Hiei, no need to worry," Kurama informed her, "The probation zone was only suppose to extend to Tokyo."

"It seems Koenma let me go here; probably he thought you weaklings would need my help," Hiei told Kurama, "Just wanted to tell you, I am not here to baby sit your little friends, Koenma ordered me to stick close to the detective, and you won't likely be seeing me again."

"Right," Kurama nodded, and Hiei vanished, making Rogue collapse, "Rogue!"

Kurama ran over to her, noticing she was still conscious.

"Man…that guys gotta be faster than Quicksilver," Rogue gasped, and Kurama helped her up, "Thanks…"

Yusuke then opened the door and burst to the room, "Hey Kurama, the Professor wants us to come to his office…hey, was I interrupting something?"

Kurama and Rogue both looked at each other then looked down at their interlocked hands. Both blushed, and let go of each other's hands and laughed. Yusuke got a confused look on his face, and turn to Kurama.

"Ah…uh better go…" Rogue stammered, then she walked out of Kurama's room really quick, completely embarrassed, 'Why am Ah feeling this way…he's just a friend…a good friend…'

Yusuke walked into the room and kept looking at Kurama and smiled.

"Nice job man, it looks like you got a girl to like you," Yusuke joked, and he noticed the blush on his friends face, "And you're beginning to like her too!"

"Uh…I am not…" Kurama retorted, still blushing, his face crimson, "She is just a friend. You said the Professor wanted to see me?"

"Yep, you, me, and Kuwabara," Yusuke then walked over to his friend, and elbowed him lightly in the ribs, "Say, you do like Rogue, don't you?"

"No..." Kurama stated, looking down to the ground, "She's just a friend…"

"Keep denying it man, keep denying it…" Yusuke joked with a sly smile on his face, "But…it is written all over your face."

"Let's just go see the Professor…" Kurama murmured, and started going out the door.

"Yeah, yeah buddy…" Yusuke joked, and followed his friend out.

In the Charles' office, Ororo, Logan, and Hank were standing in there, with three new folded uniforms on the table. Kuwabara went into the room first, and the Professor told him to wait for the others. Yusuke and Kurama entered the room a little later, and Yusuke was trying to hide his laughter.

"What's so funny, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked, looking back as Yusuke and Kurama sat down in different chairs.

"You wouldn't guess who Kurama has fallen for! It's priceless!" Yusuke replied, clutching his gut.

"Who?" Kuwabara asked, looking over to his friend.

"You can tell him later, Yusuke," Charles told him sternly, "Now, onto business. You have been here for a few days, and I can see that you are not beginners due to your skill using your powers. So, I have decided to officially make you apart of the X-Men."

"Seriously?" Kuwabara asked hopefully, and the Professor nodded, "YES! This is going to be so sweet!"

"Now don't get the wrong idea, punk," Logan snarled, and Kuwabara instantly snapped back into upright position, "You won't be getting special treatment, you'll have to work harder, got it?"

"Yes sir!" Kuwabara replied, his voice quivering a bit.

"Now, these are your uniforms," Charles told them, and the three boys looked at the neatly folded uniforms on the table, "This is yours, Yusuke."

Yusuke picked up the first uniform. It consisted of an black jacket with an 'X' on the shoulders, black tank top, and black jeans.

"This is cool," Yusuke said, and then he unfolded the jacket, "Nice, this stuff is super strong."

"It is nearly indestructible Yusuke; it is a mix of Kevlar, artificial spider silk, and flexible titanium cloth. I thought it would be good for you to have strong clothing to deal with your power. Your codename is Gunner, since your special attack is that Spirit Gun of yours," Charles told him, and Yusuke sat back down with his folded uniform, "The next one is yours, Kurama."

Kurama picked his up, and it was like the same training outfit that he usually wore. It was an all black vest that extended down to the waist, a long black shirt and pants. On the shoulders and lapel, there was a yellow 'X'.

"Thank you, I'll take good care of it Professor," Kurama told the Professor, and he sat down on his chair with the uniform on his waist.

"Your welcome and your suit is the same as Yusuke's, same amount of strength and durability, and your codename is Fox, since you have a fox demon inside of you," Charles replied, and then he turned to Kuwabara, "This one is yours, Kazuma."

Kuwabara got out of his seat, and grabbed the final uniform. It was a black overcoat with red X's on the shoulders. The Professor then handed him a piece of wood, in the shape of a sword hilt.

"What's this, Professor?" Kuwabara asked as he grasped the piece of wood.

"It is similar to the Shining Sword that you first used to access your Spirit Energy," Charles replied, "Genkai told me that is how you tapped your power for the first time, and since you lost your Spirit Energy, I thought it would be a good way to get it back, like putting training wheels on a bicycle."

"Thanks Professor!" Kuwabara exclaimed, and then he began to focus on the sword, "Come on…come on…."

After a few tense moments of concentrating, a little spark came out of the hilt. Kuwabara got a depressed look on his face, but the Professor smiled.

"It is going to take some practice, but I am sure you will be able to create your Spirit Sword again," Charles assured Kuwabara, and he placed his hand on his arm, "Your codename is Light Saber, due to your Spirit Sword power."

"Thanks Professor…" Kuwabara said as he sat down.

"Your welcome, and now you three are dismissed," Charles told them, and he watched the three new X-Men walk out of the room.

A couple hours later, a limousine drove up into the grounds of the Institute. On the sides of the black car, there was the Stark Enterprises logo showing. As it pulled up to the front steps of the mansion, Kurt noticed someone pulling up.

"Vhoa, Stark Enterprises, got to tell the Professor!" Kurt then disappeared into a cloud of smoke as a man, roughly early forties with black hair, beard, and moustache walked out of the limo sporting a blue business suit.

He walked up to the door, and rang the bell. In a few moments, the Professor, followed by Logan, Hank, and Ororo appeared at the door.

"Thank you for coming, Tony," Charles said as he shook the man's hand.

"Likewise, Charles Xavier," the man, Tony Stark replied as he shook the Professor's hand and put his hand on his shoulder, then looked at the watch on Hank's wrist, "Oh, I see you're wearing one of my companies holo-watches…"

"Dr. Henry McCoy, Mr. Stark," Hank finished Tony's sentence, and turned off the hologram, "So, you know about mutants?"

"Yes, for a long time now," Tony replied, "Hello, Logan."

"Long time no see, Stark. Still working along with S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Logan asked, giving Stark the evil eye, "I know Iron Man is still working with their Avengers."

"Iron Man still doesn't want to abandon his friends there, Logan," Tony said sternly, "They still need my backing for all their equipment."

"Yeah, yeah…" Logan muttered, and he walked back into the Institute.

"Please, come in and meet the students," Charles invited the multibillionaire in; 'I assume you brought your Iron Man suit?'

'Yes, and I made it non-magnetic in light of you telling me about Magneto's recent activity,' Tony replied, "Of course, lead the way."

The Professor telepathically contacted all the X-Men and New Mutants into the foyer, as well as Genkai. All the students gathered into the foyer, and they met the famous Tony Stark. Genkai however, wasn't impressed, in fact, she seemed downright pissed!

"I hope you aren't a member of the former Black-Black Club," Genkai said, looking at his attire, "I don't want to go through that crap again."

"Excuse me?" Tony asked, surprised a bit by the old woman's outburst.

"The Black-Black Club, a group of stuffy rich guys who ran the Dark Tournament," Yusuke clarified, "But, you don't seem the type to do that stuff Mr. Stark."

"Thank you…"

"Yusuke Urameshi," Yusuke told him, and he shook the multibillionaire's hand.

The rest of the students introduced themselves, and they were surprised that he actually knew about mutants.

"Well, mutants have been under wraps for a long time, but I only started to know about them when Charles Xavier here came to me and asked if I would build a facility underneath his family mansion that would help locate and train mutants," Tony told them, "That was about 12 years ago."

"Cool…" Kuwabara said as he imagined Tony building all the cool stuff in this place.

"Now, onto business," Tony said, straightening his tie and turning to the Professor, "Charles, you wanted me to upgrade and repair the Danger Room?"

"Yes, and also I want you to upgrade Cerebro," Charles replied, and he wheeled himself to Kurama, "You see, there are more than just mutants that I have to track now. Kurama here, for example, has the spirit of a fox demon inside of him. I also couldn't track Yusuke or Kazuma with Cerebro, even though Kazuma has the X-Gene. It is due to their Spirit Powers, and I need to track that, and also Demon Energy."

Tony stood there for a few seconds, "That can be done, but it will be difficult."

"The Danger Room will also need an upgrade for Yusuke's and Kurama's high power output," Charles told Stark.

"Alright, show me to my room and I can get started ordering the equipment for the Danger Room and Cerebro," Tony told him, and Ororo offered to show him up to his room, "Thank you Miss…"

"Monroe, Ororo Monroe, but the students call me Storm due to my powers," she replied, and he smiled and started following her up the stairs.

Jamie then went to the door and saw a group of men wheeling out a tabletop with a tarp over it, "I wonder what that is…"

Hank then went down into his lab to get Keiko's blood test results. It took the whole day for him to get the results, and his face lit up when he saw her results, and he began to run up to the foyer to give her them…


	8. Keiko's Awakening

Chapter 8: Keiko's Awakening

**Xavier Institute, Bayville New York**

After getting the test results of Keiko's blood, Hank ran to the elevator with the test results in hand. He waited anxiously, because he needed to tell the young girl what he found out. It was a surprised, but a wonderful surprise…

Keiko, after meeting the Institute's new guest, was in the recreation room, watching Yusuke and Kuwabara play ping pong. So far, Yusuke was dominating, like he always did when he was facing Kuwabara on a game. She then looked to the right, to see Scott and Jean walking into the room. Scott was trying to cheer her up, since she was still down about trusting Duncan.

"I can't believe he was such a jerk…" Jean muttered, then she looked over at Scott, "And he even tried to kill you, viewing you as competition for me…I feel like such an idiot!"

"Jean, it's not your fault, Duncan was a jerk, and you are too good for him," Scott told her, and he got an idea, "Since we have a free day tomorrow, how about I take you out for a movie, between friends, so you can forget about that jerk who tried to beat me up?"

Jean smiled, "I would like that. Thanks for being there for me, Scott."

"Not a problem," Scott told her, "What are friends for anyway?"

Kuwabara then roared, catching everyone's attention. He slammed his fists down onto the ping pong table.

"Damn Kuwabara, that's five to zero. Want another game?" Yusuke asked, with a huge grin on his face.

Kuwabara muttered something unintelligible, "Nah, Urameshi, I'm going to play another game…"

"Alright…" Yusuke said slyly, and then he went over to Keiko, "Want to do a doubles match with me?"

"Doubles match who are you thinking of playing?" Keiko asked as she got out of her seat.

"I was thinking Jean and Scott…" Yusuke replied, getting their attention, and then he smirked, "You're not afraid, are you?"

"No way!" Scott replied defiantly, "You up for this Jean?"

"Sure," Jean replied, and then she and Scott went to grab their paddles.

The match was fierce. Yusuke was surprised on how good Keiko was, and was also surprised that Jean and Scott were doing so well. The game was going to go for 20 points, and whoever got that score won first. The ball kept going back and forth, Yusuke leapt for it and missed by Keiko got it. Jean sent it back, and Yusuke caught it this time and Scott barely got to it in time to send it back. The exchange lasted for about two minutes, with Jean hitting it past Yusuke, and Keiko missed the ball too. The score was now 0-1.

"Your serve," Scott said grinning, and Yusuke mumbled something under his breath.

"Yeah yeah…" he grumbled, and then sent the ball in motion again.

The next exchange began, with Yusuke and Keiko being equally matched against Scott and Jean again. The more heated the match became, the more fun the couples were having. It took two whole hours for the game to conclude. Keiko sent the ball past Jean and Scott, scoring her and Yusuke's final point, and the score was 20-19, that evenly matched.

Panting hard, Yusuke looked up to Scott, "You…play good…man…even better than…Kuwabara…"

"Hey!" Kuwabara yelled from the other side of the recreational room.

"Thanks…" Scott replied, and he shook Yusuke's hand, "You're not…so bad yourself…"

"Thanks man…" Yusuke then turned to Keiko, "Keiko, you were awesome, how come you never told me you were so good at this?"

"You…never asked," Keiko replied simply, "I went with my friends to plenty of arcades back home, AFTER school."

"Let me guess, Yusuke used to skip school a lot just to go to the arcade, right?" Jean asked, and Keiko nodded.

"Yeah, well, Sarayashiki was a sucky school," Yusuke told Jean, "I mean, all the teachers except for Mr. Takanaka and a few others, were as corrupt as politicians."

Keiko sighed, "That part is true, Mr. Takanaka was a good teacher and principal, but the other teachers were bad. I tried to ignore it, and when I was elected class representative I thought I could change things, but I didn't and things got worse for Yusuke and Kuwabara."

"Iwamoto and Akashi got fired though, now the school's better off, but it is good to be away from there," Yusuke said cheerfully, "So, up for another game?"

"Nah, not right now at least," Scott replied, and then Beast entered the room, "Mr. McCoy?"

"I've been looking all over for you, Keiko. I got the results of your blood test," Hank told them, "You'll be very surprised. So please, come with me."

Keiko nodded, and she followed him to the elevator, "What did you find out about me?"

"You'll find out when we get down to the lab," Hank told her, as the elevator glided silently down to the basement.

Beast led Keiko into his lab. There were beakers, Bunsen burners, test tubes and more scattered around the lab. There was also a super computer with an electron microscope and also an old fashioned chalkboard on the other side of the room. The computer was printing out something.

"Now, this is what I have to show you Keiko," Hank told her, pointing to the strand of code on the screen of his computer, "This, the top code, is a normal human strand of DNA."

Keiko nodded, and Beast continued, "The bottom is your DNA."

Keiko nodded again, and Beast finished, "Now look how similar your DNA is to the middle code. That is mutant DNA and the strand is activated. Yours however, hasn't been activated yet, and we don't know what power you might have."

"Is there anyway for you to determine what it might be?" Keiko asked, and Hank shook his head.

"We'll just have to wait for your powers to develop," Hank told her, and saw the sad look in her eye and then put up another window on the monitor, "But, the data shows that your powers might be coming very soon."

Keiko smiled a bit at that, since she now had a place at the Institute and it wouldn't feel weird being the only normal human in a place full of mutants and a fox demon. She thought once her powers developed, she could probably help Yusuke out on his missions with the X-Men and assignments from Spirit World.

"You may go now Keiko, and the Professor already knows that your gift might show up very soon, so we will all be ready," Hank told her, "Genkai seemed to like that your powers will be developing, so watch out."

"Right, thanks Mr. McCoy," Keiko then went out of his lab, and back up to the foyer of the mansion.

She had a lot to think about, so she went up into her room for a while. She passed Rogue's room, and noticed that she was spending some 'me' time too. She had noticed that Kurama had taken a liking to her, and it was a mutual infatuation.

After a few hours of just reading and resting, Keiko walked out of her room, and looked at the clock. It was 6:00 PM, an hour dinner, and she started to go down the stairs when she saw Yusuke, Scott, and Kuwabara heading up.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Keiko asked, looking at them.

"I am getting my DS," Yusuke told her, "Scott wants to see me beat Super Mario 64x4."

"I've always been a fan for the classic Nintendo 64 games," Scott replied, "Oh; Storm put your dinner into the microwave, Keiko. What did Beast want to talk to you about?"

"Well, I have a dormant X-Gene," Keiko replied, surprising the boys.

"That's great Keiko!" Yusuke gushed, "Now you don't have to be the 'damsel in distress' anymore!"

Keiko scowled, clenched her fist, "YUSUKE YOU JERK!"

Yusuke went, "Huh?" before Keiko slapped him hard on the face, making him loose his balance on the stairs and fall down all of them.

Scott and Kuwabara stepped back and let Keiko walk down the stairs, still steaming from Yusuke's damsel comment. Yusuke had crashed into potted plant, and was knocked out. It looked like there were two vortexes in place of his eyes, and his mouth was agape and there was an imprint of Keiko's hand on his cheek.

'Damn you, Yusuke, I am not always a damsel…' Keiko thought as she went into the kitchen and grabbed her dinner.

She noticed Kurama sitting out on the porch. After eating, she decided to keep her friend company, but he had already left. She sighed, then went into the living room and saw Yusuke clutching his face with an ice pack on it.

"Hey…Keiko…" Yusuke grumbled, his cheek still throbbing from Keiko's slap.

"Sorry about that Yusuke, but I hate to be called a damsel in distress," Keiko told him, and he shrugged and grimaced.

"Well, I hate to tell you Keiko, you **are** one most of the time," Yusuke told her, "I was only trying to make a joke out of it, try to get you to laugh…"

He then pulled off the ice pack, "…then you do **this** to me, hit me harder than Toguro did…"

"Sorry Yusuke," Keiko said to him, and he shrugged then laughed.

"It's okay, really, but boy, if we had you on our team during the Dark Tournament, you could have knocked some sense into Toguro!" Yusuke ranted, trying to cheer Keiko up, "Hey now, come on, you have to admit you slapping Toguro silly would be funny."

Keiko then smirked, the stifled a laugh, "Thanks Yusuke, I needed that."

"And hey, you're going to be getting your powers soon, make sure you run away fast when Genkai finds out," Yusuke continued to joke, and his throbbing cheek stopped, and he took the ice patch off, "I'll always be there for you, know that, right?"

"Yes, I do," Keiko nodded, and let Yusuke put his arm around her.

Kuwabara, Evan, Roberto, and Ray walked into the room, and noticed Keiko resting her head on Yusuke's shoulder. The four boys chuckled, and started to push Yusuke off the couch, and he collapsed, along with Keiko.

"HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Yusuke yelled angrily, and noticed the other guys chuckling, "Hey, don't make me plow your faces into the dirt!"

"Yeah, yeah, Yusuke, but we needed space to play four player on the PS2," Evan said, and he saw Yusuke clenching his fists.

"We were having a moment here…" Yusuke said to them, grinding his teeth angrily.

"Of course, that is why we had to end it," Ray told Yusuke, who started to get a look on his face.

"Now…you don't want me to get mad, do you?" Yusuke threatened, and he started cracking his knuckles, "Because I have been looking for some axes to grind…"

"Come on, Yusuke, lets go," Keiko urged, and he looked back at her, "Please?"

Yusuke shrugged, "Okay, besides I have some homework to do…"

Yusuke and Keiko then walked out of the room, leaving the guys to their game.

**MONDAY, BAYVILLE NEW YORK**

It was time to go back to school for the week, and no one was looking forward to it. In three months though, it would be Christmas time, and the break. However, there was Halloween coming up next month and then the month after there was something called Thanksgiving.

Keiko, Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Evan, and Kitty got a ride from Ororo, who drove the van to school while Kurt and Rogue snagged a ride with Scott and Jean. When they arrived at Bayville High, Keiko started not feeling well.

"Hey Keiko you feeling alright?" Yusuke asked, looking over to her.

"Uh, yeah, Yusuke…let's just go in," Keiko replied, and she gave a weak smile.

Yusuke nodded slowly, and they all filed out of the van. Ororo said her goodbye, and drove off. Yusuke continued to notice Keiko's sudden weariness and was concerned for her. She had been his best friend ever since they were little kids, and they were becoming even more than friends. Keiko even allowed him to come back to life, so he still owed her for that.

It started to rain, and they hurried into the school. Keiko was still not feeling well, but she kept trying to look okay. She was making it through third period fine, but when she looked down to her hand….

"Ah!" she screamed quietly, looking at her hand, which was now see through, and she put it back into her pocket, "Uh, can I go to the bathroom please?"

"Yes you may, Keiko," the teacher replied, and she hurried out of the classroom.

"Hey, Yusuke," Kurt yelled quietly, and Yusuke continued to watch Keiko run out of the room, "Is Keiko feeling well today?"

"She was, but during second period I thought she was getting over it," Yusuke replied, as the teacher got up and started writing on the black board, and he started to take notes.

"I hope she's okay," Kitty added, looking at Yusuke's serious face, "But like, I am sure she is."

In the girl's bathroom, Keiko was splashing water on her face. Her hand, the left one had reappeared. She was freaked out, but remembered what Hank had told her, that she had the X-Gene, and was wondering if this was part of her mutation. She took a deep breath, and walked out of the bathroom, leaving some Goth girls to walk in, and they weren't Risty or Rogue.

She returned to class, still shaken up.

"Hey, Keiko, you okay?" Yusuke asked as she sat back down, and looked onto her desk, "Maybe you should go to the nurse, you've been looking sick since this morning."

"No, Yusuke, I'm fine," Keiko replied weakly, "You don't have to worry about me…"

"But I will worry, Keiko," Yusuke said seriously, and then he put his hand on her forehead, "You're burning up!"

"Yusuke, is there something wrong?" the teacher asked, looking back from the board.

"It's Keiko, she needs to go to the nurse," Yusuke replied, and Keiko's eyes closed and she fainted on the desk.

Yusuke, Kitty, and Kurt rushed over to her, and took her into the nurse's office. They were excused from class to wait for their friend, and Jean, Scott, Kurama, Kuwabara, Evan, and Amara all were called into the nurse's office to check up on their friend.

"What is wrong with her?" Yusuke asked the nurse, "And don't lie to me! What is wrong with her?"

"I am not sure, Yusuke," the nurse replied, taking the thermometer out of Keiko's mouth, "She does have a fever of 102 degrees though, she has to be taken home."

"I'll do it," Scott volunteered, "I have a car, and I can take her back to the Institute."

"I'll come with you," Jean also volunteered.

"I am coming too," Yusuke said quietly, and looked at Keiko's feverish face, "I just hope she will be okay."

After going to the office to get early dismissal, Jean, Yusuke, and Scott took the still unconscious Keiko to his car in the parking lot. It was pouring out, and Scott put up the top to his convertible. Scott drove back to the Institute as quickly as he could, and he called the Professor to tell them that they were coming.

"Are you sure it's serious Scott?" Charles asked over the phone, and he wheeled himself up to the window in his office to see it was pouring.

"Yes, she collapsed in class, and the nurse said she had a fever of 102," Scott replied, keeping his eye on the road and when he stopped at a red light, he checked back on Keiko, "Yusuke has put a damp cloth on her forehead to try to take the fever down."

"Alright Scott, I'll get Hank ready," Charles said as he hung up the phone, and got a serious look on his face, and Genkai walked into the room, "Hello, Genkai."

"Charles, what's wrong?" Genkai asked, and looked at the look on his face.

"Keiko is sick, and it may be due to her latent powers," Charles replied, "Let's hope it isn't due to that."

"She may have just gotten the flu, Charles," Genkai told him hopefully, because she had to admit she liked Keiko, since she was the only person besides her to keep Yusuke in line.

"I hope so, since it has been going around lately," Charles replied, and he felt Scott driving up into the Institute.

The Professor and Beast rushed out to get Keiko, and Yusuke followed them into the medical room. Scott and Jean were going to wait to see what was wrong, since they were excused from school for the rest of the day like Yusuke was.

The rain slowed down during the day and stopped when school was dismissed. Keiko was sleeping peacefully in the medical room on one of the beds. Yusuke had dosed off waiting for Keiko to wake up, and Beast woke him up.

"Oh, hey, Hank," Yusuke yawned, "What's up?"

"The Professor wants to see you, don't worry, Keiko just has a cold," Hank replied, and Yusuke nodded and followed Hank out of the medical room.

. The reason why Yusuke had been called up to see the Professor was because a girl who had blue hair who looked to be 16, wearing a pink kimono and riding an oar arrived. It was Botan, sent from Spirit World to Bayville.

"Sorry, I got lost," Botan said bashfully, "I am use to flying around the Japan area, and couldn't find where Bayville was."

"So, does Koenma have another crappy case for me?" Yusuke asked as he leaned against the wall in Xavier's office.

"You still haven't told me who you are, young lady," Charles said sternly, "You said your name was Botan, but you still haven't explained what you do or how you know Koenma."

"She's the pilot of the River Styx," Genkai said as she walked into the room, "And nice to see you again Botan."

"Pilot of the River Styx?" Charles asked kind of perplexed

"I'm basically the grim reaper," Botan explained, and threw her hand back and laughed, "You should have seen Yusuke's face the first time I told him that! 'You're supposed to be a skeleton in a dark cape!' he told me!"

Yusuke grumbled under his breath and placed his hand over his face in embarrassment.

"Well, that'll be all for now," Charles said, then turned to Yusuke, "And, being Spirit Detective is your job, and I won't stop you from going on cases."

"Thanks," Yusuke said, "So Botan, how long you staying here for?"

"A while, I am your assistant remember?" Botan replied, "Where's Keiko by the way? I heard she came here too."

"She's…sick," Yusuke replied, "But don't worry, Hank said she only has a cold."

"That's good," Botan gave a sigh of relief that her best mortal friend was okay, "So, who can I hang around with?"

"You could hang around with this girl named Kitty, last I saw she was getting a snack in the kitchen," Genkai replied, and then smiled, "You two have similar personalities."

"Okay," Botan then waved goodbye, and went started walking out the door, "Uh, where's the kitchen?"

A few hours passed since Botan arrived, and Keiko slept peacefully. Her eyes fluttered open, and she got up. She looked at her hand, which had reappeared, and then it disappeared again! She started to panic, and she looked to her right hand, which vanished before her eyes. Her eyes widened as she kept thinking of her body disappearing, and she cried out as her whole body vanished, clothes and all!

Her scream was accompanied by a violent shaking and spirit aura surrounding her. This caught everyone's attention, and they ran down into basement since that was where the medical area was.

"Keiko? Where's Keiko?" Yusuke asked nervously, looking around the room.

"I'm right here, Yusuke!" Keiko cried out, catching Yusuke's attention but he couldn't see her.

"Damn it, where is she?" Kuwabara asked, as they continued looking around the room/

Jean then put her hand on her temple, and closed her eyes, 'Keiko, where are you?'

'I'm right here, Jean!' Keiko thought, as she ran towards her friends, "Please! I need help!"

'Keiko, calm yourself,' Charles said, since he could feel her in the room, 'Your powers have just been awakened, that is why you are invisible.'

'So calm down,' Genkai told her in a warm voice, 'This is new for you, you're not the one to have the powers in this group, but now you do, so you have to deal with it.'

'I…I don't know how, how do I make myself visible again?' Keiko asked, and the ground started shaking around her again as her nervousness grew, and then she saw Yusuke still calling out for her, "Yusuke…"

'Yusuke, can you hear me?' Jean asked, telepathically contacting the Spirit Detective.

'Yes, what is it Jean!' Yusuke replied, throwing up one of the hospital bed.

'Keiko's still in the room, but her powers have awakened,' Jean replied, catching Yusuke's attention, 'She is invisible, but you may be able to find her using your spiritual awareness.'

Yusuke sighed, then closed his eyes, 'I hope you're right, Jean.'

Yusuke then felt the spiritual energies that were in the room. He first felt Kurama's, who was the strongest next to the Professor's. Then he felt Logan's and Kuwabara's, and Logan couldn't pick up Keiko with his nose. He then felt Jean's, Genkai's, Scott's, Rogue's, and Kitty's spirit power in the room. He was starting to get even more worried and impatient, then he felt her, he felt Keiko in the room.

Yusuke then ran over to her. She was in the other side of the room, cowering in fetal position, with tears streaming down her face. She looked up and saw Yusuke, who was actually looking right at her.

"Yusuke!" she cried, and leapt for him.

He caught her, and hugged her, "It's okay Keiko, I'm here now, you just have to calm down."

Keiko nodded, and kept crying into his chest, and her body started slowly becoming visible again.

"Remember, I'll always be there for you, and you were never a damsel in distress," Yusuke comforted her, rubbing her back.

"Whoa, is it just me or am I seeing Keiko appearing in Yusuke's arms?" Kitty asked, looking over to them.

"That must be her power, invisibility," Kurama said, as Keiko became fully visible again.

"Thank you, Yusuke, thank you…" Keiko sobbed, as she looked at her body again, and noticed she could see herself.

Yusuke smiled, and continued to comfort her. After a few moments, they got back onto their feet, and Keiko noticed she was feeling better now. Yusuke remembered she was sick, and put his hand on her forehead.

"Hey, you're feeling a lot better now, Keiko," Yusuke said, and she smiled up at him.

To be continued…

**There you have it, Keiko's mutant powers are invisibility and minor earthquakes, just not on the scale of Lance's. I hope you liked this chapter and please read and review, I put a lot of thought into it.**


	9. Battle with the Brotherhood

Chapter 9: Battle with the Brotherhood

**Xavier Institute**

Keiko was still trying to get a hang of her new powers, the invisibility and earthquake thing. Yusuke was there for her every step of the way, and so were Jean and Botan, her two best female friends. Keiko became part of the New Mutants since she was still trying to get a hold of her abilities.

Yusuke had started to get a reputation of being a tough guy in school, and he liked that rep. But, he was also starting to get bugged by the Brotherhood, who thought they still had a score to settle with him. He didn't mind though, he loved a good fight.

Botan had given him his new assignment; there has been an influx of demonic insects flying around one part of Bayville, and he was going off to investigate it. A small temporary gate to demon world might have opened and he would need to close it.

"Are you sure about this, Botan?" Yusuke asked after reading the report that Botan gave him from Spirit World.

"Yes Yusuke, I am," Botan replied as she got up, "Now, I am going with the girls to the mall."

"Wait a second! Aren't you going to help me? You're my assistant remember?" Yusuke asked, and Botan smiled and walked out of the room, "Damn it…the report doesn't say where these demonic insects are!"

On the other side of the mansion, Rogue was getting something to eat with Kitty. When Kurama walked by, it was like something clicked in Rogue's head, and she looked back to the door to see that Kurama was gone. Kitty noticed that, and went over to her friend.

"Do you have a thing for Kurama now? I thought Scott was your crush," Kitty joked, and then looked at the red forming on Rogue's face, "Well, he **is** cute. Not as cute as Lance but cute all the same."

"Y-y-you don't know what you're talking about! He is just a friend, a good friend," Rogue retorted, trying to get the blush off her face.

"Well, I think it is official that Scott is officially taken, so it is a good thing you that you got a new person to crush on," Kitty said playfully, but then she noticed Rogue starting to take off her glove, "Just joking with ya, girlfriend!"

Rogue smirked, then when she had put together her sandwich she left Kitty to get her lunch. Kitty then remembered she promised to take Botan to the mall, and there was the blue haired girl right behind her.

"I thought you were taking me to this mall of yours," Botan said very haughtily.

"Oh, yeah, right, just got to get Jean, she has her license you know," Kitty explained, and started walking out of the kitchen.

Kuwabara and Evan were playing on the PS2, again, and were evenly matched. Kurt was watching them play Soul Caliber, and then he noticed Yusuke walking down the stairs into the room, grumbling to himself.

"Hey man, vhat's wrong?" Kurt asked as Yusuke hopped onto the couch.

"My assignment from Spirit World that's what! It says there are demonic insects coming out in someplace in Bayville, but it doesn't even tell me where to look!" Yusuke replied, "Then Botan decides to go shopping of all times! Assistant my ass!"

"Probably you need a partner or something," Kurt suggested, "I mean, you're a detective right? Even Batman had Robin you know."

"You have a point…" Yusuke replied, and then he started thinking, 'Who would be a good partner…'

He turned to look at Kuwabara, who was so engrossed in the game he didn't even notice Yusuke was in the room, 'Not Kuwabara, with no spirit powers to use, he would go instantly to an arcade and leave me high and dry…'

Then he looked to Kurt, 'Teleportation might come in handy, but I doubt that Kurt would be able to see the demonic insects without any spirit awareness…'

Then it dawned on him, 'Yes, Kurama, he is the perfect choice. Plus, he is smart too, smarter than me and could get me out of some binds…I wonder what the Professor could say to that…'

'Sounds like a good idea, Yusuke,' the voice of Charles said in his head, spooking him a bit, 'One city might be too hard for you to cover alone, so taking in a partner would be a good idea.'

'How long have you been eavesdropping on my thoughts, Professor?' Yusuke asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

'Just caught the end of your thought process, Yusuke,' Charles replied, smiling in his office.

"God I hate telepaths…" Yusuke grumbled as he made his way out of the living room.

Across town, in the Brotherhood House, the 'rogue' mutants had just had a startling wakeup call. Mystique, who they thought had died in the Asteroid M incident, contacted them that in a few weeks they would be receiving new boarders. That sure freaked them out, not the new boarders' thing, what she said after. She wanted a win against the X-Men, so the new borders would be impressed.

"Are you nuts?" Toad asked, after hearing the message from Mystique, "We're really outnumbered here, more than usual!"

"We've came close to beating them before, Toad, remember?" Lance asked, and then sighed, "But we don't touch Kitty, alright?"

"Lance, get real," Fred scoffed, "Just because you like her doesn't mean I'm not going any easier on those X-Geeks."

"So we will hit them with everything we got," Pietro said in his super fast way, "I got a score to settle with that Urameshi kid."

"Tabitha, are you going to join us in fighting the X-Men this time? Cause we could really use the support!" Toad asked hopefully, because he didn't want to go into a hopelessly overmatched fight.

"Sorry, can't do," Tabitha replied, and starting walking up the stairs for her room, "I got things to do."

"Yeah sure, wake me up from the coma I'm going to be in when we get back from the fight," Toad told her, still nervous.

"Let's suit up," Lance ordered, and the others went into their rooms to change.

**Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters**

Kurama had started to get into a new book he bought a couple days ago with Rogue at that bookstore she told him about in the mall. He was really enjoying his time with the goth girl, she was smart (unlike most of the girls he had encountered here and back home), independent, and he thought she was pretty. This was weird since he never felt that way about a girl or even who were regarded as gorgeous female demons that he encountered.

He decided not to let it bother him, because he didn't think that Rogue felt the same way about him. Kurama quickly read through the first chapter of his book, _A Tale of Two Cities_, and decided it was time to get up and get something to eat.

When he was walking down the stairs, he had noticed that everyone had gone out of the house and was either resting in the sun, or playing with their powers in the yard. He saw Rogue sitting under the big tree in the back yard, away from the others. She seemed to be enjoying her time alone, and he smiled and walked off towards the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Yusuke and Kuwabara were having a little…sparring match…for old times sake. Even without his Spirit Energy, Kuwabara was putting up quite a fight, but none of his punches seemed to be able to hit Yusuke, who was grinning all the time. He kicked Kuwabara squarely in the chest, making the former gang leader crash into the wall, leaving a small dent.

"How…much are you holding back, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked, stuttering a bit, "Because I can take it all!"

"Sorry Kuwabara, can't do, don't want to kill ya you know," Yusuke replied, "Now let's get back to the others."

Kuwabara grumbled, and followed his friend back to the group.

In the yard, Bobby had transformed himself into ice, and was shooting out ice and forming it into ramps, while he and Evan skated on them. Jubilee and Amara were playing 'Catch' with their powers by throwing harmless bolts of fire and fireworks at each other. Roberto, Ray, Scott, Kurt, Rayne, and Jamie had started a baseball game. Jamie made extra copies of himself to give the teams a full roster.

On the balcony, Beast, Storm, and Tony were playing cards. Tony, however, was winning every match with each lucky hand he got. Even though he wasn't a mutant, Storm and Hank were starting to feel that the billionaire had psychic powers.

"How do you keep doing that Tony?" Ororo asked, putting down her hand.

"I guess I have some extraordinary luck," Tony replied, "Pay up."

Beast and Storm sighed, and pushed their chips towards the billionaire. Then, the next game started.

The Professor started having a strange feeling, and wheeled himself into the basement of the Institute. He was going over some notes in Hank's lab and was looking over some notes that the former teacher had jotted down. Cerebro was currently being upgraded, so he couldn't track any mutant activities easily for the next few weeks.

'This is going to be difficult trying to keep the Brotherhood in line without the ability to track them,' Xavier thought, "Even though I am the most powerful telepath on Earth, I find it difficult to just focus on certain mutants without using Cerebro…."

"Probably that is why you could use some help, Charles," the voice of Genkai interjected, and he turned around to see her in the door, "I thought I would find her here."

"Hello Genkai," Charles said, wheeling himself to face the master of Reidoha, "And I see you know my new dilemma."

"Yes, without Cerebro, you cannot track this Brotherhood of Mutants, right?" Genkai asked, and he nodded, "There is another way to track them without using Cerebro. Sense them with your spirit awareness."

"I'm a little rusty on that, Genkai," Charles confessed, and saw the smirk on Genkai's face, "Like you never lagged on your training."

"Here, I'll help you focus your mind," Genkai said as she walked over to him, and her body began to glow, "Now, focus."

The Professor closed his eyes, focusing his mind. Genkai put her arm on his shoulder, and began transferring Spiritual Energy into his body, and his mind began to be focused even more. He started picturing the Brotherhood suiting up, and then they were going into town, with a strange look on their faces.

"What do you see?" Genkai asked as the glow on her body disappeared.

"Yes, the Brotherhood is on the move," Charles replied, recalling everything that the Spirit powered enhanced psychic vision had sent to him, and then put his fingers to his temples, 'All X-Men, suit up. The Brotherhood is on the move.'

This caught all the X-Men's attention, and they began to run into the mansion. Scott called off the game, and ran into the mansion. All the X-Men, Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara included, went into the basement and suited up. Then ran to the garage, and got into the X-Van and drove off. Scott was driving and with the Professor guiding him telepathically.

The X-Man Leader drove to an abandoned construction site, the place where the Brotherhood had gathered. They all had a smug look on their face, and it looked like they were really ready for this fight. Scott and the other X-Men got out of the van.

"About time you showed up, Summers," Lance said cockily, and he looked to see Kitty standing over on the opposite team.

"What do you want this time Lance? What were you planning on doing?" Scott berated, and the cocky earthquake maker smirked.

"Mystique is coming back, and before she comes back she wants us to pull off a win against you guys," Lance replied, and he saw Yusuke cracking his knuckles.

"Too bad, you won't get a win against us," Yusuke told Lance, "Oh, I guess you didn't like that."

"That's it!" Lance yelled, and he slammed his foot down onto the ground, causing shockwaves to go up everywhere around him, and he looked back to his group, "Now, don't touch Kitty, right?"

The rest of the Brotherhood had begun the attack on the X-Men, and Scott looked back.

"Everyone split up!" Scott ordered, and the X-Men complied.

Yusuke started running towards Blob, with Jean and Scott behind him. Kurama went with Rogue and Spyke to fight Quicksilver. Nightcrawler, Kuwabara, and Kitty went running up against Toad and Lance.

"YAH!" Yusuke yelled, as he plunged his fist into the Fred's stomach, but he sank in, "What?"

"Nothing can move the Blob kid," Fred replied, then punched Yusuke off of him.

Cyclops slammed a button on his visor, releasing a steady stream of optic blast energy right at Fred, making the unmovable mutant step back a bit. Jean engaged her telekinesis, trying to lift the Blob up.

"Can't keep it up…" Jean told Scott and Yusuke.

"No problem!" Yusuke yelled, and Spirit Energy gathered into his fists, "While you're in the air Fred, you ain't unmovable!"

Leaping into the air, Yusuke a. k. a Gunner, slammed his fist into Fred's jaw, and in that exact moment, Jean released her telekinesis. Fred screamed as he flew into a pile of old, rusted beams. The force of that knocked Fred out.

Rogue's group was having trouble with Quicksilver, who was too fast to be hit. Spyke kept shooting out his spikes, missing every time. Kurama then flicked his wrist, getting his rose whip ready. They were inside the unfinished structure of the construction site, and Kurama was coming up with a plan.

"You think you're going to hit me with that thing?" Pietro taunted, and Kurama smirked.

"No, but my intention is not to hit you," Kurama replied, and he used his whip to slash down some metal beams that were behind Quicksilver.

Quicksilver jumped, and began running back towards Rogue. She took off her glove, and got ready to grab him. Pietro smirked, and dodged her tackle and continued to run. He noticed Kurama getting something ready, he had placed something into the ground.

"Fox, what are you doing?" Evan whispered, as he stepped back a bit.

"A little trap for Pietro," Kurama replied, patting the dirt, "Just get your spikes ready, okay?"

"Okay," Evan said as spikes jutted out of his back and arms.

"Get back here ya stinking…" Rogue grumbled as Pietro continued to toy with her, and then she noticed something underneath the ground, "What is that?"

"Hey Rogue, pay attention or you will eat my dust!" Pietro taunted, picking up his speed and kicking up more dirt and dust, blinding Rogue.

All of a sudden, vines sprouted up from the ground, tripping up Pietro. He stumbled, and Fox turned to Spyke.

"Launch them now!" Kurama ordered, and Spyke threw out his arms, launching four spikes at Quicksilver.

Pietro looked back and screamed, as the spike lodged in his clothing and threw him back to a completed brick wall. He struggled, trying to get out, and he saw Rogue walking towards him.

"N-Now Rogue…you…wouldn't want to do that…" Pietro stammered, seeing the look on Rogue's face.

"Why now sugar, why wouldn't ya want a southern belle like me to touch ya?" Rogue asked, a glint in her eye, "Now, will ya just stay still?"

Pietro screamed again as Rogue place her hand on his cheek, zapping him of his power. She cringed, as her body adapted to the new ability she received, and then she smirked.

"Well, he's out," Rogue said, "We better go help tha others."

"Right," Kurama said, and then he rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry you had to take all that from Pietro, just needed some time to come up with a plan."

"It's alright, Kurama, we needed that to take him down," Rogue replied, "Now, lets go help the others."

Kurama and Evan nodded, and they followed Rogue out of the super-structure to see that Blob had gotten back up.

"I have to admit little man, you hit pretty hard!" Fred yelled, and he began to charge Yusuke.

"Gunner, get down!" Scott ordered, and Yusuke complied by ducking the punch that Blob threw hat him, "Take this!"

Scott blasted the Blob's face with his optic blast, and Yusuke began to rise prematurely.

"How about a double?" Yusuke asked, charging up his fist again and slamming it into Blob's jaw, "Ya like that?"

Blob screamed as his body was accelerated by the blows of the optic blast and the spirit powered punch, and was thrown into a wall and was knocked out. The wall fell over, covering him.

"Nice move," Scott commented, and Yusuke gave thumbs up, "Rogue is coming back with her group."

Now, Kitty's group was having the toughest time since they were fighting three on two. Nightcrawler was fighting Toad and Kuwabara, aka Light Saber, with Lance, who was making shockwaves to throw them off.

"You think those tiny ripples can throw me off?" Kuwabara yelled as he jumped into the air, and slammed his fist into Avalanche's face.

Lance staggered back, and then wiped the blood off his lip, "That was a good hit, newbie."

"What did you call me? You're just asking for more of an ass whoopin'!" Kuwabara shouted again, and Avalanche smiled.

"You won't be catching me off guard again!" Lance's eyeballs turned up into the air and he extended out his hand, and sent a major earthquake towards Kuwabara.

Nightcrawler and Kitty were having an even tougher time with Toad. It seemed he had been practicing his moves now. Toad spitted some slime into Shadowcat's face, and kicked her to the curb. Lance looked back.

"Toad, what are you doing?" Lance asked, ceasing the shockwaves that he was producing.

"Hey, I never agreed not to hurt her, yo," Todd replied before Nightcrawler teleported behind him.

"I got you!" Kurt yelled, putting Toad into a full nelson.

"Like, gross! And that hurt!" Kitty complained, wiping the gunk off her face, and then she looked back to see the others coming for them.

"Crap! Let go of me fur ball!" Todd struggled, then through Nightcrawler off of him.

Lance quickly regained his composure to block an incoming punch from Light Saber. He flipped the former gang member to the ground and started shaking things up even more.

"Now…take this!" Lance yelled, and threw his arms high into the air, making a huge rock jut right out of the ground below Light Saber.

"Damn it!" Kuwabara yelled, and then he reached into his pocket, and took out the training sword, 'Please, work! I need my spirit power now!'

His wish was granted, a fiery blade appeared out of the training sword, and he rose it up high and slashed the boulder. Avalanche was surprised at this development, and looked back to see the other X-Men running towards him and Toad.

'Both Pietro and Blob were taken out this quickly?' Avalanche asked and he looked to see Toad beginning to struggle against Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, "Toad, we're getting the others and getting out of here!"

"Right!" Todd yelled, and notice Blob waking up, "Fred! We're getting out of here!"

"Ugh…yeah right…" Fred groaned, pushing the bricks off his body.

"Your friend is in the super structure, unconscious," Kurama told Lance, "He's okay, Rogue just zapped his power."

Rogue returned with the unconscious Quicksilver and dropped him unceremoniously onto the ground. Blob grabbed him, and all the Brotherhood started running off.

"Well, I guess that's that," Yusuke said, as he cracked his knuckles, "I guess it'll be a while before we get a decent fight, eh Kuwabara? Kurama?"

"At least I got my Spirit Energy back, watch," Kuwabara said, placing his training sword back in its holder, "HRMN…."

"Dude, nothing's happening," Evan said, and he looked at Kuwabara's face, "And you look constipated."

"I guess it only works with that training sword of yours, Kuwabara," Kurama told him.

"Crap, I thought I had my spirit energy back," Kuwabara shrugged, and then looked down to the ground, "And I was starting to feel so much better about myself."

"Don't worry man, remember how long it took you to do the Spirit Sword on your own after the first time you did it?" Yusuke tried to encourage his friend.

"Well, let's go home, I guess…" Kuwabara grumbled as he headed for the X-Van.

The other X-Men tried to get Kuwabara to cheer up on the way home, but it didn't seem to work. But, when they were leaving, someone was observing them from the shadows.

'So, those are the new student's powers…and that boy with the slick-back hair must be the spirit detective,' the person, Mystique, thought from the shadows, and then she looked up to the top of the unfinished super structure, 'And that must be the demon, Hiei, everything seems ready for the new boys' arrival.'

To be continued…


	10. Who is Risty Wilde?

Chapter 10: Who is Risty Wilde?

**XAVIER INSTITUTE FOR GIFTED CHILDREN**

**Saturday Night**

Another week had passed since the rumble with the Brotherhood. At school, the members of the Brotherhood had left Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama alone. Kuwabara was still a little down on him still not being able to control his Spirit Energy at will, only if he was holding the training sword he could make the blade. Fall was in full force in Bayville, since it was approaching November. Football season was ending, and even though Duncan was no longer on the team (due to his arrest and expulsion from Bayville High), the team was doing pretty well.

Kurama and Rogue were getting along really well; they had similar interests, and were getting really close. They both kept the views of being just friends; in fact it felt like they were best friends. The fox demon had continued to help her in her school work, and was ignoring all the girls that were fawning after him. But, around Rogue's friend Risty, he always got a weird feeling from her, and it wasn't a good one.

Keiko was gradually getting control of her new abilities, since she was able to become invisible at will now, but still hadn't harnessed the earth quaking power yet. She heard that one of the Brotherhood had that power too, but since he was on the other side, she couldn't ask him for help. Yusuke, Jean, Genkai, and the Professor had been helping her all the way though.

Yusuke however, was trying to work on the case that Koenma had sent him. During the night, he would go out to see where the demonic insects. He had found that Hiei had followed them, and was trying to get information from the fire demon.

"Sorry detective, haven't seen any insects around this area," Hiei told him, and he saw Yusuke shrug, "Anyway, I've been following you, and it seems I'm not the only one."

"You saw something with your Jagan eye?" Yusuke asked, and Hiei nodded, "What was it?"

"It was a girl, actually a woman, with blue skin and red hair," Hiei replied, "But, she was wearing a disguise or something."

"From the description, that woman sounds like Mystique," Yusuke said, putting his hand up to his chin, "From her outside appearance, could you tell me anything about that?"

"No, sorry detective," Hiei replied, "Next time, if I ever start to tail you children again, I won't use the Jagan."

Hiei then vanished, leaving Yusuke to contemplate what he just heard, "Okay, now this Mystique is back, and we got swarms of demonic insects in one part of the city and no one seems to know where those are! Damn, I hate my job…"

He decided to go back to the mansion, so he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, until he got to the estate. He leapt down from the nearest building, landing perfectly on the ground. He walked casually over to the gate, and placed his thumb on the fingerprint scan. The scan recognized him, and Yusuke walked in.

He walked into the mansion, and went straight for the kitchen. Yusuke saw that most of the cookies were gone, and went to ask Storm to get some more when grocery day came along. He went into the fridge and grabbed an apple. He saw the Professor wheeling into the room.

"Hello, Yusuke how was the patrol?" Charles asked, and he saw Yusuke sigh, "Not good I see."

"Yeah, and the worse part is I think that crazy lady I heard about, Mystique, is back," Yusuke replied, "I ran into Hiei, and he told me he used his Jagan eye to see through Mystique's disguise, but he couldn't see what form she took."

"That is troubling information. We all thought that Mystique had perished when Asteroid M crashed," Charles said as he raised his hand to his chin, "And she did go into that crystal chamber…she has had her shape-shifting power augmented…that means she could be virtually undetectable, even immune to psychic probes."

"She sounds like a lot of trouble," Yusuke said, "Hopefully I'll run into Hiei again so we can get more information."

"Yes, and you should bring Hiei back to the Institute as well, he may need to go undercover," Charles told him, and then he saw Yusuke choke, "What's wrong?"

"Bringing Hiei here, that's what's wrong!" Yusuke replied, "The guys a freakin' psychopath! He is a loner, and the only reason why he was on our team in the Dark Tournament was because his sentence would be shortened!"

"Sounds like my kind of guy…" the voice of Logan came from behind the Professor, "Might be fun to tangle with him…"

"Seriously Logan, it wouldn't," Yusuke told him, "He is incredibly fast, strong, and ruthless. Having him here with these kids would be a bad thing. The only person he's shown sympathy for is his sister, Yukina."

Yusuke then took a deep sigh, "He would shred you apart, Logan."

"I can handle him," Logan told Yusuke, and he formed a fist sending his claws out, "I could keep him under control."

"It would be your funeral," Yusuke told Logan, and then he walked out of the kitchen with the apple in his hand, "I'm going to go watch some television then go to bed, it's been a long day for me."

As Yusuke left, the Professor turned to Logan, "We may have to raise our security since Mystique is back."

"I'm on it, probably Stark can go out as Iron Man and do some patrolling," Logan told the Professor, "He's got to have something on that suit of his that can see through disguises."

"He very well might have something on the suit, since I haven't been following his upgrades of it," Charles speculated, and then he noticed the time, "I'm going to check up on Cerebro, Tony said it was almost done being upgraded and he needs me to test it."

The Professor then left the kitchen and Logan went out onto the patio. He took out a cigar and lit it. Leaning back against the wall, he started to think on what he had just learned about Mystique, and then grinned when he pictured this Hiei guy.

'He doesn't sound so tough, I bet I can take him,' Logan thought, taking the cigar out of his mouth and breathing the smoke out slowly, savoring the flavor, and then noticed something different in the air, 'There is someone on the Institute's grounds…'

Logan used his enhanced vision to see someone perched at the far end of the Institute. He was short, but had tall spiky hair, and was standing up on the branch with what looked like a third eye glowing on his head. Logan took him as a threat, and clenched his fists tightly so his adamantium claws could come out of his knuckles. It seemed like the figure seemed to notice what Logan had done, and vanished right before Weapon X's eyes.

'What the hell was that?' Logan thought, pulling his adamantium claws back into his skin, 'That person seemed even faster than that Pietro punk since he just vanished before my eyes…'

"That's Hiei for you," the voice of Kurama said from his room, catching Logan's attention, "Oh, sorry Logan, was I disturbing you?"

"Uh, no fox boy not at all, so, that guy that disappeared was this Hiei guy I heard about?" Logan asked, "And what were you doing?"

"Since I wasn't out on patrol with Yusuke tonight, Hiei was giving me the information telepathically," Kurama explained, jumping down from his window, "I know that this Mystique person is back."

Logan huffed at that, "So, Fox, what are Hiei's powers? He seemed to be just a shrimp with a glowing third eye."

"That third eye is called a Jagan. It enhances Hiei's abilities, and allows him to summon one of the most dangerous creatures in all existence, the Dragons of Hell," Kurama explained, "He is also a fire demon with ice maiden blood flowing through his veins. His speed in battle can only be matched by Yusuke, and he hates human beings for some reason. Hiei is also full of pride and is unwilling to admit defeat, and he only tolerates Yusuke's and Kuwabara's presence. His dream was the destruction of every human being on Earth."

"Sounds like a real hard ass," Logan mused, unfazed at what he had just learned of the fire demon, "I would like to meet Hiei sometime, test out my skills against him."

"It is your choice Logan; Hiei is incredibly powerful though," Kurama told Wolverine, "I'm going back in Logan, see you later."

"Yeah, thanks for the info Fox," Logan took another deep breath from his cigar, drawing in the smoke.

**MONDAY**

It was a school day, and no one was happy about it. The faint sign that winter was coming was signaled by a light snow shower the night before, leaving the ground covered in fresh powder. All the students were at school; while Botan was getting her papers…she had to be close to Yusuke and Kurama to give them much needed information from Spirit World.

Kurama, Rogue, Jean, and Scott were walking down the halls to their next class. Suddenly, Rogue's best friend Risty appeared, and that strange feeling that Kurama had gotten the first time he met her. It was like Yoko was warning his human host of danger, and the hair started standing on end on the back of his neck.

"Hello luv, how ya been?" Risty asked, as she followed them into class, "Well, Rogue? Shuichi?"

"Ah'm good," Rogue replied, going to her seat, "Just wish Ah could have slept in later."

"So how about you Shuichi?" Risty asked, noticing the look on his face, "Tough night?"

"Uh, yes, yes it was," Kurama replied, trying to sound normal, 'I wonder why Risty is setting this off? The Brotherhood are no where in the room…I wonder what Yoko is trying to tell me…'

Kurama continued to ponder, looking around the room to see if there was any danger that his enhanced senses were picking up. But, all signs pointed to Risty for some reason. He began to sniff the air, subtly, not to catch attention to himself. He picked up the scent of an older woman in the room, and it wasn't the teacher. The smell was coming from Risty.

Sitting through class and hearing the lesson, he sent a telepathic message to Jean, 'Jean, there is something strange about Risty, the kitsune named Yoko is warning me that there is something wrong with her.'

'What do you mean something is wrong with her?' Jean asked, taking a quick glance over to Risty, 'She looks fine to me.'

'I think there might be more than meets the eye about her,' Kurama told her cautiously, 'After class, I'll talk to Rogue about this…'

'Okay,' Jean shut off her telepathy, and turned her attention back to the teacher.

Kurama wore the worried look for the rest of the class, and Rogue noticed. She decided to let it go for now, and find out what was troubling him later. The class dragged on slowly, but finally the bell rang after 30 minutes of waiting.

Rogue, Kurama, Jean, and Scott gathered their books and walked out the door. The fox demon cautiously eyed Risty as she walked to her next class. The feeling that he got, the danger warning, faded, and he turned to Rogue who was walking beside him.

"Say, Kurama, Ah mean, Shuichi, is there something bothering you?" Rogue whispered to him, and he nodded, "Well, what is it?"

"It's Risty," Kurama replied as they kept walking forward.

"Huh? Why?" Rogue asked, hoping he wasn't falling for her.

"I'm sensing danger from her," Kurama told her, trying not to get her too worried, "I think there is a wolf under that placid sheep's façade."

Rogue's heart sank when Kurama said that. Risty had been her best friend, and now Kurama.

"Ah…Ah don't believe you…" Rogue stuttered, tears filling her eyes, and she tried to suck it up, "She…can't be…she's my friend…"

"Rogue, you have to trust me," Kurama said warmly, "Take some of my powers, and find out for yourself."

Rogue took a deep breath, and shook her head, "Alright…"

She took off her left glove, and touched Kurama lightly on the cheek. She pulled away instantly, getting enough of his powers. Kurama was a little lightheaded after that, but he quickly shook it off. They walked over to their lockers, to see Risty at hers.

The enhanced senses that she received from Kurama were acting up. She smelt an older woman, someone in her early 30's, coming off from Risty. Her eyes widened, as a nagging presence in her mind warned her of the danger coming off from Risty. Risty however didn't notice them, and started walking off.

Kurama noticed the look on Rogue's face, "Are you alright Rogue?"

She sniffled, "No…Risty has lied to me…and she presents a danger to us all…"

"I'm sorry Rogue…" Kurama apologized, and he tried to comfort her, "I'm going to go get Jean to do a mind scan of her, she may just be a mutant in disguise."

Rogue's face softened from that, and she got a glint of hope from that. Maybe Risty was really a mutant, albeit older than her, trying to pass off for a teenager again. Hopefully they could still be friends.

At the next bell, they found Jean and they brought her to Risty. Risty was walking down the hall with a walkman on, and she didn't notice them. Jean put her hand to her head, and focused her mind.

"Any progress, Jean?" Kurama asked, and she shook her head.

"I…can't get through…" Jean replied, squinting her eyes harder, "She…has a mental block, but it feels like Risty isn't even there…"

Rogue listened to her, hoping against hope for a breakthrough in the telepathic probe. But after at least two to three minutes of focusing her mind, Jean collapsed from the strain.

"D-Did ya get through?" Rogue asked hopefully.

"No…" Jean replied, shaking her head, squinting her eyes in pain, "It felt like something pushed my mind out of Risty's head before I could finally break through the mental shield."

"This is a problem," Scott said seriously, "We need to determine if she is really a threat or not."

"I think I might have a way," Kurama suggested, and they all looked at him, "We're going to need your car though, Scott."

Kurama told them of his plan, and they all agreed on it. Rogue was really depressed because of this, but if Risty proved to be a threat, it was the only way.

When school was dismissed, Rogue, Jean, Kurama, and Scott gathered outside of the school, and got into his car. They saw Risty walking down the sidewalk, and drove over to her.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Risty asked, looking at those in the car.

"Hey Risty, want a ride home?" Scott asked casually, and Risty put her hand to her chin.

"Of course, gov'nor," Risty replied, as she climbed into Scott's convertible.

There was an eerie silence in the car as Scott drove through the city. Risty was getting a feeling that there was something wrong, and then Scott turned the car into a parking lot. It was abandoned; the store long since closed and boarded up.

"What are we doing here guys?" Risty asked, getting nervous at the glares she was receiving.

"Ah just want to know why you've been lying to me for so long…" Rogue said coldly, and Risty's jaw dropped.

"I…I don't know what you mean," Risty stammered, seeing the look that Kurama was giving her.

"I know that is not your real form," Kurama said sternly, making Risty's hair stand up, "Now, reveal to us your true form, please."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Risty yelled, her voice sounding with anger and fear.

"Enough of the lies," Rogue yelled, and she took off her glove to learn the truth, "It your not going to tell me willingly…"

"Rogue…no!" Risty screamed as she cringed back in the seat of the car.

"So ya do know about me!" Rogue shouted, slapping Risty on the face with her ungloved hand, absorbing who the girl really was, "…no….it…can't be…"

Risty suddenly began to change. Her skin turned blue, her hair turned dark red, and her eyes became yellow. Fangs formed in her mouth, and a black one piece dress formed on her body. Risty turned out to be, Mystique.

"Why did you do this to me? Were you really trying to be my friend, or were you manipulating me like before!" Rogue yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice filled with anger and sorrow, "Tell me!"

"You…already know from the slap you gave me," Mystique replied, and then she noticed the look that Kurama was giving her, "I don't know how you found out, and frankly I don't care at the moment. Now, let me leave in peace."

"Go, you already caused enough damage here," Kurama stated sharply, as if he intended to kill Mystique for this transaction, and they both looked at the crying absorbing mutant, "Now."

"This isn't over," Mystique snapped, and she jumped out of the car and disappeared into the crowd of pedestrians who didn't even notice what had just happened.

"The Professor needs to learn about this," Scott said firmly, and the sobs of Rogue were heard in the back, "I'm sorry Rogue."

Rogue continued to cry at the betrayal of her best non-mutant friend, who turned out to be Mystique in disguise. Scott sighed for his friend, and put the car into gear. Jean patted her on the arm, while Kurama got closer to her to try to comfort her.

**XAVIER MANSION, LATER THAT DAY**

Yusuke, Jean, Scott, Kurama, Genkai, Logan, Hank, and Ororo were in Xavier's office, and the Professor had just been told on what had transpired a couple hours ago. Yusuke was surprised on what happened, he thought that Risty was kind of cool.

"Now this is very distressing," Charles told them, turning around in his wheelchair to face the X-Men, "Risty had access to the mansion because she was Rogue's friend, but since Risty was Mystique, there is no telling what she found out."

"What is even weirder is that I couldn't smell Mystique's scent," Logan told the Professor, "That crystal chamber must have made her undetectable, but how could fox boy here sense her?"

"He used his spirit awareness, nimrod," Genkai told Logan, giving him her new nickname for Wolverine.

"Actually, it wasn't my spirit awareness I used," Kurama clarified, "Yoko enhanced my senses to feel the danger coming off from Risty, then he added his sense of smell to mine and I was able to find the scent of a woman Mystique's supposed age. It turned out to be Mystique in the end."

"What I can't believe is that Risty was actually Mystique!" Yusuke blurted out, "I mean, from what I have been told about that crazy lady, Risty doesn't sound like the persona she would take."

"That is why it was the perfect disguise," Charles told Yusuke sternly, and then he looked to Kurama, "Rogue will be okay, she is a strong girl you know."

"I wouldn't doubt that she will be up and about in a day, Kurama," Genkai told him, noticing the boy's expression.

"That is all for now, you are dismissed," Charles told his friends and pupils, after sensing the mood in the room.

Kurama and Yusuke walked out of the room and Yusuke turned to his friend.

"Hey, you alright man?" Yusuke asked, seeing the expression on his face.

"I…feel sorry for Rogue, I feel that I shouldn't have told her," Kurama replied, looking down at the floor.

"Look dude, just go up to her and talk to her. I mean, it was a good thing that she found out before Mystique did something wrong to her," Yusuke told him, and he noticed Keiko and Kitty walking down the stairs, "Any luck talking to her girls?"

"No, she doesn't want to speak to anyone right now," Keiko replied sadly, Rogue had become one of her friends and she didn't like seeing her friends hurt.

"May I go up to see her?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah, sure, if she'll let you in I mean," Kitty replied, and Kurama nodded and walked up the stairs, and then she turned to Yusuke and Keiko, "I think Kurama has some feelings for Rogue."

"I knew it, but he keeps denying it," Yusuke told her.

"So has Rogue, she apparently really likes Kurama," Kitty added, "You notice anything Keiko?"

"Well, they do seem to like to spend time together," Keiko replied, "But I think we'd better leave them alone for now."

"Agreed," Yusuke and Kitty nodded in agreement, "Meanwhile, lets start planning on getting those two together," Kitty said, and Yusuke and Keiko nodded and smiled in agreement once more.

The lights were off in Rogue's and Kitty's room, as the southerner continued to cry. She had so many betrayals so far in her life, and she actually thought she found a true friend out of the mansion. But like everything in her life, it turned out to be false. Her makeup was all messed up from her tears, and she continued to cry. There was a knock on her door.

"It's locked…I want to be alone…" Rogue sobbed, wiping away her tears.

"It's me, Kurama, I just want to talk."

Rogue continued to cry, but she looked up to the door, "I'm…coming…"

Rogue unlocked her door, and let the fox demon in. She went back and sat on her bed, and Kurama went over to her.

Kurama took a deep breath, "I am sorry Rouge, I shouldn't have told you."

"No…no…it's alright, Kurama," Rogue sniffled, trying to wipe away her tears, "She was no doubt going to hurt me in the end….the why does it hurt so much."

"Because she was the first person to really accept you for who you are Rogue," Kurama told her, and then pulled up his sleeve, "You shouldn't beat yourself up about though; you're just proving that she accomplished her mission."

Kurama wiped the tears off Rogue's face, and then looked at her, "You can't let her win."

Rogue then cracked a small smile, and hugged him. This caught him by surprise, and he looked down to see her crying softly into his shoulder. He sighed and smiled, and he returned the hug. They held each other like that for about an hour that is when supper was ready. Rogue had stopped crying, and was just resting in Kurama's warm arms.

"Rogue, I think it is time for dinner," Kurama whispered to her, and she smiled.

"Thank you for being there for me Kurama," Rogue said to him as they got off her bed, and she started to wobble, "Ah think Ah've been in one position for too long."

"Me too," Kurama chuckled, and they both walked out of Rogue and Kitty's room and went down to the dining room.

_To be continued…_

**Please read and review.**


	11. Walk on the Wild Side part 1

Chapter 11: Walk on the Wilde Side: Part 1

**Bayville New York**

A few days had passed since the Mystique fiasco, and Yusuke tried to get Hiei to try to track her down, but the fire demon wouldn't have it. He had enough of helping inept humans, and was going off on his own in the city; unseen and undetectable.

"What do you mean Hiei? We need you, we're a team! And you know how dangerous Mystique is!" Yusuke argued, and the fire demon gave an arrogant huff.

"This Mystique person doesn't concern me, and I've had enough of babysitting you detective," Hiei told him, "The only reason why I was on your team during the Dark Tournament was because Toguro put me in a bind. Once Toguro ceased breathing, our alliance was over. The only reason I helped you detective was because I thought I owed you, which I don't anymore."

"Hiei…" Yusuke growled, clenching his fist, "You jerk! Go if you want to! We don't need you anymore either!"

Hiei smirked, and then vanished right before Yusuke's eyes. They were a team in the Dark Tournament, now one of Team Urameshi had left. Yusuke yelled in anger, since he needed more information on this case. He punched the wall on the building he was standing on, and decided to go home.

Yusuke was tired; he had stayed out to long. Hiei, when he doesn't want to be found, is very hard to track down, and it took him most of the night to find the fire demon. When he reached the mansion, he saw Logan waiting for him.

"Out a little late, kid?" Logan asked, pointing at his watch.

"Yeah yeah, Logan, what time is it?" Yusuke asked wearily, he wanted to go straight to bed.

"Almost 2 AM, what were you doing kid?"

"Finding Hiei, that's what," Yusuke replied, "I wanted to tell him we dealt with Mystique, and I wanted him to help us find her again. He walked out on the team though…damn."

"Come on kid, time to go inside, and"Logan said, "Hey, losing a teammate, whether they die or they walk out on the team."

"Like you ever had to lose a teammate, death or no," Yusuke mumbled as he followed Logan into the mansion.

'Little punk…' Logan thought as he closed the door, 'The comrades I lost would make your head spin…Captain America is in a cryogenic state, thanks to that damned Sabertooth I lost Silver Fox and Maverick to Omega Red…'

Logan clenched his fists, 'I don't remember a lot about my past…but I do remember the sacrifices of my friends….and why I **_hate_** Sabertooth with passion…'

Logan calmed down, and walked up to his room. It was going to be a short night; he had to wake up the kids for practice in the morning.

**Sub Basement of the Mansion**

Scott was going down to the into the lower levels of the mansion to fetch Jean and Amara, who were training in the control of Amara's powers. He pressed the DNA scan on the elevator and walked in. He looked at the screen as he was lowered down farther into the Earth. When he reached his destination, he walked over and heard the voice of Jean talking to Amara in a deep construction hole and he leaned down.

"Remember, focus your concentration. Don't let your powers control you. I know it's difficult, just maintain your discipline," Jean told her, "Okay, ready?"

Amara nodded slowly, and Jean put her fingers on her temples and lifted a bunch of rocks surrounding one huge boulder, and lowered them into a bridge like crossing. The boulder fell a little lower, and staggered to stay balanced.

"Now, melt them together."

"If this doesn't work, I'm not taking the blame. I told you I wasn't ready for this," Amara told Jean as she rubbed her hands and flames engulfed her body, and she shot a beam of heat at the rocks, fusing them together. It took only a few seconds for it to cool, and Jean walked out on it.

Scott stood up, and lifted his wrist, "Jean you there?"

"Scott?"

"I just wanted to remind you, the Professor and Genkai don't want Amara to be late for her first day of High School."

"Don't worry, I got it covered," Jean told him, and she turned to Amara, "Listen we're just finishing up her last training exercise. Now, let's see how you did."

Jean then walked onto the fused rock bridge, "Not bad, just one little crack."

"Then the session was a failure," Amara shrugged depressingly.

"No not at all," Jean encouraged her, "Learning how to handle things that go wrong is part of the training. You just got to repair it."

Jean walked a little further, "Don't worry, I'll keep us safe."

The huge boulder began to rock, and then it started to fall.

"Amara! Melt that boulder back into place!"

"I'll try!" Amara gasped as she rubbed her hands and shot some fire out, and missed it by a hair as it fell.

Just as it was about to hit, Jean lifted her hands up and caught it with telekinesis, "Don't worry! I got it!"

Then a red beam of light shot down and blasted the boulder, sending pieces of it everywhere and both girls screamed momentarily. It was Scott who shot it, and they both looked up at him.

"You guys okay?"

"Scott, what did you do that for?" Jean asked angrily as she and Amara both floated up to the surface, and she wiped the dust off her uniform, "Fine."

"It's a good thing for you girls I was here. No need for thanks. That's what heroes do, save damsels in distress."

Jean sighed angrily, and then walked away from him towards the elevator, "What?"

He went into the elevator and pressed the button that led them up to the top floor. He kept glancing back and getting dirty looks from Jean, who was really pissed off at him for some reason. When they reached the top floor, he tried to find out what was wrong. As they walked out he began to ask.

"But what did I do? Tell me."

Jean stopped, turned back to him and leaned into his face, "All right. You were being…a guy!"

"I'm…sorry?"

"Scott, I was trying to teach Magma how to handle things that go wrong….and that didn't mean asking for a big strong man to save you!" Jean vented as she walked into her room and slammed the door in Scott's face.

"The nerve!" Amara added as she also slammed her door at Scott.

Scott sighed, and heard a groan, "Yusuke, you're still in bed?"

"Until Jean's yelling woke me up. Man, what did you do?" Yusuke asked after he gave a long yawn and went to his door, "Jean sounded pretty pissed off if you ask me."

"I just went down there to remind her that the Professor didn't want Amara to be late, right after she and Amara had just made a bridge. Then, a huge boulder fell and I blasted it to save them."

"Uh, Jean was there man. Did it look like **she** couldn't handle it?" Yusuke asked, before Scott realized something, "She could have just caught it with her psychic powers ya know."

"Damn, you're right!"

"No worries man, just give her time to calm down, she'll be fine later," Yusuke told his friend, and watched him walk down the hall, "Now…time to get changed for school…"

**Bayville High**

Keiko and Kitty were walking Amara to her first class, passing the other students on the way. They stopped in front of Keiko's first class, and Yusuke walked in.

"And right over here is your first period class. Be sure to sit by a window, you'll be able to see the track team sweating, trust me, it's worth it," Kitty told Amara, and started to walk away, "Keiko, get her a good seat. Well, I'm off, _ciao._"

"Okay Kitty," Keiko said as she waved goodbye to her friend, "Come on Amara, you'll like the class."

Keiko led Amara to a desk one desk away from the window, "I'm going to sit next to Yusuke, talk to you after class!"

Kuwabara walked in, and sat in the third seat near the window in the back of class. Amara thought about it, then moved her stuff to the far window seat. Tabitha walked in with her walkman playing _Walk on the Wilde Side_. She put her things down and Kuwabara gazed at her.

'She gets prettier everyday!' Kuwabara thought, gazing longingly at Tabitha.

"Hey Amara!" Tabitha shouted cheerfully.

"Hey Tabitha…"

"Hey girl, what's wrong?" Tabitha asked as she started painting her fingernails with purple nail polish.

"Jean's been putting me through a lot of training, so has Genkai, I don't know if I can handle it," Amara explained, "Plus, during our training session this morning Scott messed it up."

"Forget that Amara, I did," Tabitha told her as she applied more nail polish to her right index finger, "What you need now is a good mall crawl. How about I treat you to one after school?"

"That sounds like fun!"

"Then it's settled then," Tabitha concluded as she put the brush back in it's bottle, "Now lets watch the track team…"

They both walked over to the window and began to watch the first session of the track teams practice.

'If she's interested in that…what chance do I have...?' Kuwabara thought as he looked over to Tabitha, and good thing there was a sub today or they all would have been busted for walking to the window like that and doing nothing.

School passed by quickly and before you knew it the final bell rang. Kuwabara, Yusuke, Keiko, and Kurama walked out to see Jean standing there, looking like she was waiting for Scott.

"Maybe Scott was able to apologize after all," Yusuke whispered to his friends, not trying to get Jean's attention.

"She did seem rather peeved at Scott during class, and from what you told me she has the right to be upset," Kurama added, and he saw Rogue coming out of the school, "I'm going to talk to Rogue guys, see you later."

"Yeah, see ya Kurama," Yusuke waved, and he decided something, "You know what? I am going to go to the arcade and whoop the nerd's asses there…"

He then turned back to Kuwabara, "Coming man?"

"Nah, maybe later. I told Bobby and Evan that I would play basketball with them today, and you know I am a man of honor," Kuwabara told Yusuke, and he snickered.

"I'll come with you Yusuke," Keiko offered, and he blushed a bit, "If it's okay with you that is..."

"Yeah…sure…no problem," Yusuke grinned sheepishly as he started leading Keiko towards the mall.

When they were gone a far enough distance, the sound of screeching tires was heard from the back of the school. Jean turned back to hear booming sounds and she saw Tabitha throwing her little time bombs into trashcans startling all the students. What shocked her more was that Amara was with her, waving to her no less. She ran over to Scott, who was talking to a few of his friends.

"Scott, I need to borrow your car!" Jean told him, "Amara is with Boom Boom and I'm afraid she'll do something stupid!"

"Gotcha, I'm on it," Scott said proudly, throwing his keys up into the air and catching them, then noticing glare that Jean was shooting at him, "Not that you couldn't do it…and about this morning…I'm sorry…"

"I know you didn't mean it, but I just get angry being treated like the weaker sex…" Jean then smiled, "And I know you want to ask me to the dance, don't worry, I'll ask you and get the tickets…."

She then noticed the unsure look on Scott's face, "Unless you already got the tickets a few months in advance…"

Scott chuckled nervously and Jean snatched the keys right from his hands and stormed off to his car angrily.

"Man, you just got shot down!"

Scott shrugged, his pride pierced by another arrow and his embarrassment meter had gone up a lot. Jean sped off in his car, not even offering him a ride.

Meanwhile, on a basketball court a few blocks away from the school, Kuwabara, Evan, and Bobby were playing two on one, with Kuwabara all alone on the one side. He was being schooled, and was having a hard time keeping up with his opponents in the game, and was down by 20 points. Kuwabara then heard a scream coming from an nearby alley.

"Hey! Did you guys hear that?" Kuwabara asked as he jumped down.

"Now no changing the subject of your owning Kuwabara," Evan told Kuwabara, who looked intently at the alley, and another scream was heard, "I heard that."

"Someone's in trouble!" Kuwabara shouted as he ran across the street, narrowly avoiding the traffic, and ran into the alley.

Evan and Bobby followed, and the three of them saw a woman surrounded by four huge guys.

"Stop! Leave me alone!"

"You're late on your payments lady…and our boss isn't too happy about that…" one of the men growled, taking out a switchblade, "Now, if you give us the money, we'll leave you and your shop alone…and if you don't…"

"No! Stop! Please! I don't have your money! Just leave me alone!"

"I think she needs to be taught a lesson…"

"I think you punks need a lesson," Kuwabara said angrily, making the four men turn around, "And I'm going to do the teaching!"

"Get a life little boy, this is big man's business."

"That's it!" Kuwabara yelled as he ran full speed into the nearest punk, and slammed his fist into the punks gut, then kicked him to his friends.

"Why you little!" one of them yelled as he charged Kuwabara.

"Yeah, that's right punk!" Kuwabara dodged the punch and threw the second guy into the wall with minimum effort.

"Enough of this…" the guy with the knife snarled, and then he charged Kuwabara with knife drawn.

Kuwabara sidestepped the first jab from the knifeman, and blocked the following back fist. He then kneed and elbowed the guys arm to make him drop the knife, and threw him into the last guy.

"Wow, nice job Kuwabara," Evan commented as the four men got up and began to run out of the alley.

"You alright?" Kuwabara asked, and the woman nodded, "Now, if you'll excuse me…I'm going to leave those punks for the cops!"

Kuwabara then took off at full speed, and looked around to see the four men still running. He smirked and then started running after them again.

"Hey! Kuwabara, wait!" Evan yelled as he started running after Kuwabara.

"Our games not finished!" Bobby added as he took off after his friends.

Kuwabara caught up with the four men, who piled into a nearby car. It stayed there for a second, and Kuwabara waited.

"This is what you get for messing with us, little man…" the driver snarled, taking out a .44 pistol, and pointed it at him.

'Oh crap!' Kuwabara thought, and then he remembered, 'That's right…'

"Die."

The gunman shot at Kuwabara, who leapt into the air and did a roll sideways. He took out his training sword from his left pocket, and channeled his spirit energy into it. Instantly, a blade of flame shot up out of it, and he smirked.

"What the…?" the gunman asked, "That's some freaky stuff there, too bad it won't save you."

The driver/gunman shot at Kuwabara, who used his Spirit Sword to block it. The flame was so hot, it vaporized the slug! The driver/gunman's eyes widened and he continued to shoot at Kuwabara, who kept blocking it with his sword like a Jedi would to blaster fire.

"Dude! Let's bolt!"

"Yeah!" the gunman put away the pistol, and put the car into overdrive, speeding off out around the corner.

"Hey! We're not done yet!" Kuwabara roared and he put back the training sword and began to run again, but the car was too fast, "Hey Iceman! A lift!"

"Huh? You want me to become Iceman now?" Bobby asked as he caught up with Kuwabara and Evan.

"There's no one around, and those guys need to be busted!" Kuwabara replied, and Bobby transformed his body into ice, and both Kuwabara and Evan went to him.

"Hold on guys!" Bobby told them, making an ice arch over the nearest building and they were all lifted up by the ice, and they began following the extortionists' car.

"Evan! Shoot at their tires!" Kuwabara ordered and Evan nodded, making the spikes come out of his body as the car that the extortionists were driving turned into an alley.

Evan shot the spikes at their back tires, making the car swerve out of control. Kuwabara turned to Bobby, who nodded, and shot out an ice blast with pinpoint accuracy at the car's axle, freezing it up and stopping the wheels. The car was instantly stopped and the sound of sirens was heard.

"Good, she called the cops," Kuwabara muttered, seeing that the alleyway was also a dead end, "Let's get out of here, we won't be spotted by the cops if we go now."

"Right," Bobby agreed, pointing the ice bridge back toward the sidewalk without anyone noticing, and they started walking away as the cops arrested the beaten extortionists.

**Xavier Mansion, later that day**

Scott had entered the kitchen and gotten a cookie out of the cookie jar. Yusuke, Kurama, and Keiko walked in a little later, and they got some sweets as well. Sitting around the table, they turned on the television and watched. Amara and Jean sat near the window as they walked in, and Kuwabara, Evan, and Bobby leaned against the wall. The news came on, and no one decided to change it.

"_The Capture of the notorious carjackers was attributed to a group of mysterious good Samaritans who disappeared just as the police arrived. The suspects are part of a larger car theft ring operating in Bayville…"_ the reporter told the viewers, _"In other news, a group of extortionists were also captured today, and their car was part of the models stolen by the car theft ring. It is speculated that they're connected."_

"I think we better just keep this to ourselves, okay?" Jean whispered to Amara.

"Right, it's not like we'll be doing anything like that again."

"Exactly," Jean put her arm around Amara's shoulder, and they walked out of the kitchen with Scott falling out of his seat as he continued looking at them.

"Kuwabara, probably we shouldn't go public with this, you know," Evan whispered to him, and Kuwabara nodded.

"Yeah…but it was fun ya know," Kuwabara grinned, "It's been a while since I smashed a punk against the pavement."

Bobby nodded, and they all got up and walked out of the room.

"Scott, you okay man?" Yusuke asked, drinking some milk that he got out.

"Uh…yeah…" Scott replied as he got back into his seat.

_To be continued, please read and review…_

_Oh, I skipped the car chase sequence because we all ready know what happened in it. Next chapter will have two songs, the one Jean, Amara, and Tabitha chose out, and a hardcore rock song for Kuwabara, Evan, and Bobby…I was thinking Sun Doesn't Rise by Mushroomhead._


	12. Walk on the Wild Side part 2

Chapter 12: Walk on the Wilde Side Part II

**Bayville Mall, Music Store**

On one side of the store, Tabitha popped in her favorite CD into the huge stereo, and her favorite song went on. The song was loud enough to echo half-way down the mall, and Tabitha started dancing…

_I'm just your sweet next-door neighbor_

_I do it on a told_

_And I never cause any trouble_

_I'm so much more than meets the eye_

_But there's something that I keep deep in side_

Tabitha danced over to Amara who was trying on some black sunglasses and pulled her away, then went over to Jean and they all went into the clothing department. Jean went to grab a red shirt, but Tabitha pulled her away and grabbed a black shirt and pulled her towards the dressing room. Then they all walked out of the store with bags in their hand, put on rollerblades and stopped some teens from tagging a wall.

_Don't mess with my kind_

_Don't play with my mind_

_I'm only a girl but I can move the world_

_Don't put me down_

_Or kick me to the ground_

_I'll be up in a flash_

_A superhuman blast_

Tabitha then convinced Keiko and Kitty to join their group, and later that day they stopped a purse snatcher with Kitty phasing through a brick wall and Keiko invisibly kicking him high. Back at the mall they convinced Botan and Rogue to join their group, and decided to get their outfits all set.

_I may be out to have a little bit of fun_

_I've got a life of my own and it's just begun_

_I've got powers you can't deny_

_Treat me wrong, and I'm gone_

_In a blink of an eye_

Tabitha was wearing a one piece black tank top, with black jeans and high rise boots. Jean was wearing a black vest tank top with black jeans. Keiko was wearing a black parker over her new black tube top with black shorts. Botan was wearing a black kimono she brought from Spirit World. Amara was dressed in a different style of black tank top, red gloves and boots were accompanied by black pants. Due to her powers, Rogue wore a black jacket over her tank top with long black pants and boots. Kitty was wearing a black tank top and black jeans that stopped right under her knees. Finally, Tabitha, Jean, Keiko, Botan, Rogue, and Kitty had black gloves on and they all had sunglasses on and were wearing their hair back.

_Ohh…_

_Don't mess with my kind  
Don't play with my mind  
I'm only a girl   
But I can move the world  
Don't put me down  
Or kick me to the ground  
I'll be up in a flash  
My superhuman blast_

Rogue stopped a guy from stealing a car by knocking him out with her absorbing powers. Botan formed an oar and slammed it at a guy's head who had stolen a mountain bike. Jean used her telekinesis to pull a guy right back to them who had stolen a purse from an old lady, and they all phased back into the wall before anyone knew what happened.

_Don't mess with my kind  
Don't play with my mind  
I'm only a girl   
But I can move the world  
Don't put me down  
Or kick me to the ground  
I'll be up in a flash  
My superhuman blast_

They began to dance around the store when the song began to wind down, and when it was over, they fell down laughing. They all walked out of the mall, done for the day at what needed to be done. Tabitha took her CD out and they all walked out of the mall.

Kuwabara, Evan, and Bobby entered a little later, and Kuwabara was carrying with him his own music. Putting in a 3 Doors Down CD, Kuwabara tuned to the song…_Kryptonite_.

"Yeah…let's get started!" Kuwabara cheered as the guitar started playing.

_I took a walk around the world to  
Ease my troubled mind  
I left my body laying somewhere  
In the sands of time  
I watched the world float to the dark  
Side of the moon  
I feel there is nothing I can do, yeah_

Kuwabara grabbed a black bandana and some sunglasses, and went into the whole tough guy act with Bobby and Evan. Grabbing more black bandanas; they prepared to get their outfits ready.

_I watched the world float to the  
Dark side of the moon  
After all I knew it had to be something  
To do with you  
I really don't mind what happens now and then  
As long as you'll be my friend at the end_

Kuwabara, Evan, and Bobby showed up at bank robbery when the thieves were fleeing, and Bobby froze two right in their tracks. Spyke flattened their tires with his spikes, and when they tried to flee, Kuwabara beat the hell out of them. Before the cops arrived, they went back into the shadows.

_If I go crazy then will you still_

_Call me Superman_

_If I'm alive and well, will you be _

_There holding my hand_

_I'll keep you by my side with_

_My superhuman might_

_Kryptonite_

Kuwabara managed to convince Lance to join their new group, and Avalanche became a good teammate. They started chasing a rapist who was caught in the act, and Lance shook up the whole place leaving the rapist to fall off his feet. Bobby then froze him in place for the police to arrive.

_You call me strong, you call me weak,_

_But still your secrets i will keep_

_You took for granted all the times I_

_Never let you down_

_You stumbled in and bumped your head, if_

_Not for me then you would be dead_

_I picked you up and put you back_

_On solid ground_

Finally, walking through the toy store, the four new 'heroes' met up with Jamie, and quickly convinced him to join the group. There was some drunks bothering an elderly couple, and Jamie multiplied. His clones and Kuwabara charged in and laid down a major beat down on the drunks and left them tied up and on a telephone pole.

_If I go crazy then will you still_

_Call me Superman_

_If I'm alive and well, will you be _

_There holding my hand_

_I'll keep you by my side with_

_My superhuman might_

_Kryptonite_

They got their new costumes ready, and went into the dressing rooms. Kuwabara came out with the black jacket with black tape wrapped around his waist with dark back pants and a bandana wrapped around his black head. Evan had a black helmet over his, with a black tank top and chords to match. Bobby had dark blue shades on, dark blue tee shirt, and dark blue jeans. Lance had a red bandana on his head with a black tank top and black pants with red boots. Finally, Jamie had chosen to wear a black jacket with a black tee shirt under it and black jean shorts. They were all wearing black sunglasses and bandanas either on their faces or wrapped around their heads.

_You called me strong, you called me weak,  
But still your secrets I will keep  
You took for granted all the times I  
Never let you down  
You stumbled in and bumped your head, if  
Not for me then you would be dead  
I picked you up and put you back  
On solid ground_

Some hit men drive up to a local bar, where their rivals are hiding out. Taking out machine guns, they prepare to fire. Their rivals notice this, and take out their own. Before they could fire at each other however, a wall of ice sprouted up and some of the guns froze. The ground started shaking, making some of them fall to the ground. The gunmen looked over and started firing at five figures, but some spikes shot out at their guns making them fall to the ground. The tallest figure slapped the smallest one, and a couple more smaller guys appeared. They charged the hit men and their targets, beating them up and messing up the bar.

"HEY!"

"Put it on our tab," the tallest one told the bartender, before they ran out of the bar before the cops came about.

_If I go crazy then will you still  
Call me Superman  
If I'm alive and well, will you be  
There holding my hand  
I'll keep you by my side with my  
Superhuman might  
Kryptonite_

In the mall, the boys started sparring a bit, knocking each other around. Evan started break dancing, so Kuwabara had to put him out of his misery. Jumping off the second floor area, Kuwabara landed with ease and threw Evan into the wall, and Evan retaliated in smacking him. Bobby and Lance dodged each other's punches as the next chord of the song started.

_If I go crazy then will you still  
Call me Superman  
If I'm alive and well, will you be  
There holding my hand  
I'll keep you by my side with my  
Superhuman might  
Kryptonite_

Kuwabara side kicked Evan who dodged and grabbed his leg, and then he dropped and tripped the former gang leader. Lance blocked Bobby's kick with his forearm, smirked, and dropped his guard. They were all calling attention to themselves, and security was coming. All five of them started laughing, letting the mall cops see that they were just fooling around, and they left.

_If I go crazy then will you still  
Call me Superman  
If I'm alive and well, will you be  
There holding my hand  
I'll keep you by my side with my  
Superhuman might  
Kryptonite_

A woman was being chased by five men turned around to see them all knocked out and frozen or pinned to the wall. She sees five young men disappear into the shadows after that.

_Yeah!_

Kuwabara, Evan, Bobby, Lance, and Jamie put their hands in the middle while sitting around the food court, and yell at the top of their lungs as they threw their hands into the air, swearing an oath of honor for their group. They chugged their sodas, and started walking confidently toward the exit.

_If I go crazy then will you still  
Call me Superman  
If I'm alive and well, will you be there  
Holding my hand  
I'll keep you by my side with  
My superhuman might  
Kryptonite_

_Whoa, whoa, whoa_

_Whoa, whoa, whoa_

_Whoa, whoa, whoa_

**Xavier's Mansion, Kitchen**

"_And so, in just a few short days, Bayville's crime rate has dropped down to a non-existent level all due to two mysterious groups of crime fighters, referred to as the Sirens and the Dragons."_

"_Chief Rothman, do you have any clues on the identities of the Dragons and the Sirens?_"

"_Not yet, but we swear we will put a stop to their vigilantism,_" Chief Rothman told the reporter, making Scott, who was watching the news in the kitchen with a cookie in his hand, pause for a second to think about the two groups.

**Warehouse on the other side of the city**

A sickly looking man in a business suit puts down his cigar, and looks at the news reports. His business has been very strained lately due to these attacks by the Sirens and Dragons.

"Boss, what are we going to do about this?"

"I'll handle it…these children need to be taught a lesson…" he lifted his hand, and a spiked tentacle shot out at the television, destroying it, "Send out more of my demonic insects, we'll need more men to deal with them. Put them at the chop shop and our extortion headquarters."

"Yes sir!"

The businessman leaned back in his chair as his underling fell back. Most of the men he had recruited were being controlled by the demonic insects, and he didn't want to lose the foothold he had on this city.

"I think I'll supervise the extortionists operations…"

**Bayville High, the next day**

The next day in school, the girls strutted down the hall. The way they walked caught everyone's eye. They looked like they were walking on cloud nine, and people noticed. Guys dropped their books, their girlfriends got jealous, and Kitty blew all of them a kiss. Scott was at his locker, and he could sense them coming, but he hit his head on the top of his locker with his head. He rubbed it and looked to see the girls pass him.

"Wow those sirens are awesome!"

"Some people are even saying they have special powers!"

Scott then realized who the Sirens were, and he ran over to Kurt, who was looking for a book in his locker. Someone then grabbed Kurt, and he hoped it wasn't a football player.

"I didn't do it!" Kurt yelled as he struggled.

"Kurt, cancel your plans for tonight," Scott told him as he calmed down, "We have a secret mission to take care of."

On the other side of the school, Kuwabara, Evan, Lance, and Bobby strutted their stuff. Jamie couldn't make it, since he was in middle school. They kind of got the opposite effect that the girls got from the guys, since they were acting all tough and high and mighty. The girls sighed longingly as they saw them pass, and one of the football players that used to hang out with Duncan dropped his books, quietly picked them up, and left.

'This feels just like how it was back in Tokyo…but we are a gang…' Kuwabara thought as he smirked confidently, leaving all the guys to back away.

Yusuke had heard about both the Dragons and the Sirens, but he dismissed it as just some wanabee heroes. He then heard Kuwabara laughing behind him, and saw Evan, Bobby, and Lance following him.

'Guess Kuwabara has a new gang…' Yusuke thought, and closed his locker and went to class.

**Xavier Mansion, circa 9:00 PM**

Yusuke and Kurama were getting ready for their nightly patrol of the city. Sitting on a rooftop, they surveyed their surroundings. They still haven't found anything on the demonic insects, but they seemed to congregate in one area of town for some reason. Before they left, Yusuke saw Kurt and Scott in Scott's convertible. Kurt was looking over the wall as Lance's car drove up.

"Hey, I wonder what's happening…" Yusuke mumbled as he looked down and saw Tabitha driving, and then saw Jean, Rogue, Amara, Kitty, Botan, and Keiko run to the jeep. Yusuke scratched his head, "Now, this is bizarre."

Kurt fell back into his seat and both he and Scott ducked in their seats in Scott's car. Jean went to close the gate, and she noticed Scott's car parked about 20 meters away from the gate; she smirked, then closed the door and went to the car.

"Hey, Kurama, was there a girl's night out scheduled for tonight?" Yusuke asked the fox demon.

"No…but they might get into some trouble. Tabitha is with them and we know how she gets," Kurama started, "I think they've all been sneaking out for the past week or so…"

"Maybe you should tail them Kurama, just in case. We don't want them to get hurt," Yusuke told him, "Just, keep it quiet, make sure they don't see you unless they get into trouble…"

"I think Scott's already gotten that idea," Kurama said as the girls filed into Lance's jeep and they drove off, and Scott began to follow.

"You go man, maybe you'll get to save Rogue from making a mistake…"Yusuke hinted and grinned, then he turned around, and Kurama was already gone, "Kurama pulled a Hiei!"

Yusuke then looked down to see Lance running towards the mansion. He wondered what he was doing running towards the mansion, then he looked over to see Kuwabara, Bobby, Evan, and Jamie snuck out of the mansion. He ducked behind the wall, and continued to look down and listen.

"Hey Lance! Where's you jeep?" Kuwabara yelled as quietly as he could, and Evan and Bobby shushed him.

"Tabitha took it again…" Lance replied, hiding the anger underneath his breath, "I even chained it up! She just breaks the chain and steals it from right underneath my nose!"

"Quiet man, we'll just walk," Evan told him, "I found out where the extortionists are based, we'll be able to round them up in one swoop."

"Then we'll continue to ride the whole hero thing," Lance concluded, liking Evan's plan.

"We'd better hurry. Urameshi is probably still in the area, and we don't want him or Kurama spotting us," Kuwabara whispered, "Now, let's go!"

The five of them ran off, leaving Yusuke to figure out what they were doing.

"Now I get why Kuwabara was so high in mighty in school today!" Yusuke laughed, "I guess they are the Dragons that have been on the news so much!"

Yusuke continued to laugh, and then he straightened himself up. He saw a demonic insect land near him. Instantly, he caught it and crushed it in his hands.

"Now I got to do some more pressing matters," Yusuke said as he looked at the crushed insect, "Now where did this thing come from…"

**Two Hours Later**

Kuwabara and the other Dragons had reached the extortionist's headquarters. There were guards everywhere, and there were people running in and out of an office. The Dragons crouched as they surveyed the area.

"You guys ready?" Kuwabara asked, and all of them nodded, "Lance, you start shaking things up."

"Can do…" Lance rose to his feat, put out his hand and his eyes rolled back.

The ground underneath the exterior of the headquarters began to shake violently, throwing the men guarding it to their feet; it also alerted everyone inside of the Dragons' presence.

"Let's take 'em out as quickly as we can boys!" Kuwabara yelled, and they all sprang out of the alley they were hiding in, punching through the nearest guards.

Two of the guards began shooting at them, but Evan shot his spikes at them, knocking their weapons out of their hands and pinning them to the wall. Bobby shot out ice that froze the remaining guards to the ground and Kuwabara broke into the extortionist compound using a powerful sidekick.

"Kill them!"

All the guards pointed their weapons at Kuwabara, but he slapped Jamie who was near him, and Jamie split up into his copies. The guards were surprised at this, and both Kuwabara and Jamie's copies charged them while they were stunned.

"They're just kids! Kill them!"

"I don't think so," Bobby yelled, shooting some ice at the guards' weapons, freezing them up and making them inoperable.

"Nothing can stop us Dragons!" Jamie added, as he got hit by one of the bigger guards, but instantly more copies of him appeared and they attacked the guard.

Kuwabara heard some guns clicking behind him, meaning they were ready to fire. Doing a back flip, he palm fisted the guns to the ground, and punched out their users.

Lance appeared in the doorway, and began shaking things up. All the guards fell as they tried to get to him, and they were knocked out by the falling crates in the building. In a matter of minutes, the whole compound that the extortionists were using for operations was put out of operation.

"Now let's get these guys ready for the cops to take them," Kuwabara told his fellow Dragons, and he cracked his knuckles, "Wait, there's someone coming out of that office up there…"

The leader of the extortionists came out and looked down at the Dragons. He grimaced angrily, and began walking down the stairs.

"I must commend you children…between you and the Sirens, my operations have slowed to a halt…"

"Okay buddy, who are you?" Kuwabara yelled, shaking his fists, and suddenly he felt the 'tickle feeling' coming off of this man, "Or what are…."

The windows began to shake, and the Dragons looked up to see thousands of insects swarming outside of them. The force of the insects pounding against the glass shattered all the windows, and they swarmed on the man.

"Why, I am a demon, boy…" the man started to explain, "And a demon of the highest class no less. I am a descendant of the great Kairen, but I have grown fond of this world, and it's money…I am the local crime boss in Bayville right now, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"I'll handle this joker," Evan said confidently, "Your bugs don't scare me."

"No, Evan, wait!" Kuwabara shouted before Evan shot his spikes at the demon, who just batted them away like they were nothing.

"No way…" Evan muttered as the man started to grow in size.

"Now, now, I haven't finished my introduction," the man's voice became raspy and deep, "My name is Shiren, and I have all of my ancestor's powers…including one of my own…"

The demon insects then flew at the Dragons, who began punching and kicking at them, trying to knock them off.

"Playtimes over kids…you're in the big leagues now…" Shiren growled as the Dragons began being overwhelmed by the demonic insects.

"Argh…you're right! Playtime is over!" Kuwabara grabbed his training sword, and channeled his spirit energy threw it, making his flame sword appear, "YAH!"

With one swipe of his blade, the demonic insects around his friends were burnt up and killed. He began charging Shiren, with his blade down at his hip.

"You're going to die for all the suffering you caused to the people in the city Shiren!" Kuwabara roared as he leapt into the air with his fiery blade over his head.

"I don't think so boy!" Shiren yelled as he raised his hand and tentacles shot out, hitting Kuwabara's shoulders and hip.

"KUWABARA!" Lance, Evan, Bobby, and Jamie yelled as Shiren impaled their friend on the tentacles.

"AHH!" Kuwabara screamed in pain as the pressure points on his body were hit, "This…is nothing…I have…dealt with this before!"

"You have? Then I better take it up a notch!" Shiren roared as his tentacles grew longer and Kuwabara was thrown back.

Kuwabara continued to scream as his body was ripped apart by the speeds that the tentacles launched him at. He was slammed through a nearby building, right through the brick wall.

On the road on the opposite side of the building, the Sirens were returning home from Shiren's chop shop.

"We were lucky that cop let us go," Jean said to everyone, "We would have been arrested if we didn't stop."

"But it was fun while it lasted, right Tabitha," Botan asked, and Tabitha muttered something under her breath as the jeep continued to drive.

"Hey, you guys here something?" Keiko asked them, and something crashed through the wall they were driving near.

The object slammed into Lance's jeep, knocking it off the road into a nearby wall. Luckily, none of the girls were hurt, and the jeep managed just to get a huge dent on its left side and was still on all four wheels.

"Is everyone all right?" Keiko asked, and all the Sirens shook their heads.

"What the hell was that?" Tabitha asked, and they all unbuckled and got out of the jeep, "Man, Lance is going to kill me…"

They got out to see what was jammed into the wall, and there were wiry like things connected to it. They looked in further and red liquid was seen. Keiko and Botan leaned in further, and they saw who it was.

"It's Kuwabara!" they both yelled as the wiry like tentacles shot out of his arms and legs.

"Is he still alive?" Jean asked as the former gang leader coughed up some blood, "He's still alive…"

"What…are you…girls doing…here?" Kuwabara weakly asked as Botan and Keiko lifted him out of the hole in the brick wall.

"These wounds are life threatening, what did this to you?" Botan asked Kuwabara who was drifting out of consciousness, "Without his Spirit Energy, he isn't as nearly as durable as he was before."

"Is he going to be okay?" Tabitha asked quietly, seeing the condition Kuwabara was in.

"Not sure, but we have to get him back to the Institute," Jean replied as evil laughter was heard from the area where Kuwabara was shot through.

Suddenly, a person crashed through the window on the building that Kuwabara had crashed through. He landed, a bit scratched up but no worse for where. It was Evan.

"Ow…what hit me?"

"What are you guys fighting over there?" Kitty asked as she ran over to her friend, and then an earthquake was felt, "Is Lance over there?"

"Yeah, he's apart of our group, the Dragons," Evan replied as Lance was heard screaming, "We got to get back over there!"

Kitty realized the urgency from the scream, and they all ran over to where Bobby was trying to hold off Shiren. The demon cackled evilly, shaking off the ice that he was coated with like it was nothing. His eyes glowed brightly and Bobby crashed into a nearby wall on the other side of the parking lot of Shiren's headquarters.

"Oh, look, more fresh meat, and I bet you ladies are the Sirens who have been ruining my carjacking business!"

"What the hell is that thing?" Tabitha gasped as Kitty ran over to Lance, who was lying on the ground unconscious.

"He's still alive, what did you do to him!" Kitty yelled angrily, tears swelling up in her eyes.

"I just tapped him lightly. I didn't know his body was so fragile…" Shiren replied, "You children don't stand a chance against me…I am a demon of the highest class, and a descendant of the great Kairen! I am Shiren!"

"We'll just have to see about that!" Jean retorted, and she started using her telekinesis to lift Shiren up into the air, "Amara! Tabitha, hit this thing with everything you got!"

"Gotcha!" Amara and Tabitha began hurling fireballs and time bombs at Shiren.

They exploded on the demons skin, and smoke surrounded the area. When it cleared, however, Shiren's skin wasn't even singed.

"No way…" Amara gasped, and Shiren began to struggle in Jean's hold.

"Can't…keep him up…much longer!" Jean cried, and then she dropped Shiren, "He…has his own psychic abilities…but he broke my hold so easily!"

"Your weak telekinesis was nothing against me. And those attacks of your little girls were not even worth my notice…."

"This thing has a really big ego, doesn't it?" Rogue commented, as she started to take off her gloves, "Want to play with meh, tough guy?"

"Taking off your gloves…" Shiren growled, and his eyes glowed brightly again, "I won't let you touch me though!"

Rogue was hit by a strong blast of red demonic energy from Shiren, and she screamed as her body flailed about in the blast.

Kurama leapt across the gaps between the buildings, and he saw Lance's jeep on the side of the road with a pretty beat up side. He also saw the holes in buildings and the broken windows.

"What happened here…?" Kurama asked himself, and then he heard a scream, "That's Rogue!"

He jumped down to ground level, and ran down through the alley at startling speeds. He saw Rogue caught in the demonic energy, and he ran over to her as it disappeared. Without a second thought he caught her with his bare hands, luckily on one of the areas where the cloth of her costume wasn't torn.

"Rogue, please be alright…" Kurama cradled her, and she coughed, "Please be alright…"

Rogue opened her eyes and looked up at Kurama.

"Ah'll be fine…Kurama…just go get him…" Rogue raised her gloved hand and put it on Kurama's face, "Go get em, sugar. Ah'll be alright…"

"Thank god…" Kurama put his hand on Rogue's and rose to his feet with a shadow cast over his eyes.

"Your just going to be one more kid for the slaughter…" Shiren growled, and then Kurama's body began to glow, "That's…demon energy…"

"You'll pay for what you did to my friends…" Kurama grabbed the rose bud in his hair, and grabbed a blade of grass that was on the ground with his left hand. Instantly, a blade harder and sharper than any steel blade formed in his left hand and his rose whip formed in his right.

Kurama yelled a battle cry, and charged Shiren at full speed. Shiren laughed, and instead of tentacles shooting out from his fingers, they shot out from his back. Kurama avoided them by sidestepping, and cut them with his blade. Shiren screamed in pain as his black blood spewed up of the severed tentacles.

Kurama leapt into the air, and twirled the whip over his head. The petals began to fall off the whip and they surrounded him.

"Rose whiplash spiral!" Kurama roared as he severed all of Shiren's limbs with his rose whip, blade, and the rose petals.

Shiren collapsed to the ground, and Kurama thought it was over. He changed his Rose Whip back to its original form and put it back in his hair. He also transformed his blade back into its original form and put it in his pocket. He closed his eyes and began to walk away from Shiren's lifeless body.

"Whoa…remind me never to get on Kurama's bad side…" Evan gasped as he ran over to help Bobby up, who was beginning to get up, "Where's Jamie?"

"He's over here, and he's okay," Keiko replied as she found Jamie hiding behind some crates.

"At least it's over…" Jean said as she was helped up by Botan, "And we can get Kuwabara back to the Institute for healing."

Shiren's body began to stir, and Kurama felt it. He turned around to see Shiren laughing deeply.

"Ha…ha ha ha….that surprised me kid…" Shiren mocked, as tentacles shot out at his severed limps, and pulled them towards his wounds, "I thought I was the only demon in this town, yet I was wrong. Even so, your powers pale in comparison to mine…"

'This is just like what Elder Toguro could do…' Kurama thought as Shiren's body healed itself, and he rose to his feet.

"You look stunned, Demon boy…" Shiren chuckled, and then shot a tentacle out of his finger at the stunned Kurama.

"Kurama, watch out!" Keiko yelled, not wanting to see her other friend get hurt.

"Huh?" Kurama gasped as he realized the tentacle approaching him in slow motion, and it was aimed at his heart.

As quickly as he could, he tried to side step the projectile. It hit his left arm, and sank in deep. He let out a bloodcurdling yell; the tentacle had hit one of the nerves in his arm. Shiren cackled, and retracted his digit. Kurama dropped to one leg, and clutched is limp left arm.

"Little demon boy hurt? Aw, I'll make it better…" Shiren taunted as he ran full speed at Kurama.

Nearly six blocks away, in the abandoned part of town, Yusuke had finally decided to take a break. It seems all the demonic insects were gone from this area, since, apparently, there were no people here for them to feed on. On the rooftop that he had stopped to take a rest on, he looked around to see anyone coming.

"Man, why are the streets so dead tonight?" he griped, and laid down on the rooftop, "All the other areas of the city have people walking around, and it's a Friday night for Christ's sake! But this place is like a ghost town! At least there should be some hookers and muggers out, but there's no one…"

He then took a deep breath and began to close his eyes. Then, he heard an extremely loud yell, a scream in fact, belonging to someone who was a male. He shot up, and his mouth widened.

"That's Kurama…" he gasped, "No time for a nap, my friend needs my help! He probably found the source of the demonic insects as well!"

Yusuke closed his eyes, and focused his Spirit Awareness. He found Kurama's Spirit Energy, but he also found something else…

"Kurama's not alone…and I recognize the others with him…" Yusuke's eyes widened, "I…I feel Keiko's…and Jean's…and Kuwabara's! His is very weak too! Yet…there is another…and it is strong…"

Without a second thought, he leapt down to the ground and began running towards the area where the Spirit Powers were.

Shiren backhanded Kurama on the face, making the fox demon crash into the nearby brick wall. He clutched his shoulder, and bore his teeth. Desperately, he ran at full speed towards Shiren, who just laughed at this new effort.

"What's this? One more desperate attack before you die?"

'My only chance is to plant the death seed on Shiren's body…I hope I can inflict a wound deep enough to accomplish that!'

Kurama didn't realize that Shiren had read his mind, and was expecting the death plant maneuver. Taking his bloodied hand off his wounded arm, he leapt into the air screaming a loud battle cry. He threw two kicks at Shiren's head, which would have been powerful enough to knock any human's or demon's head clean off, but they didn't even scratch Shiren's body. Faster than the eye could see, Kurama reached into his pocket and pulled out the death seed, but before he did he shot a sharpened piece of grass at Shiren.

Shiren grinned, and let the grass hit him. He winced in pain for a second, and Kurama followed up by throwing the death seed at the wound. Siren snickered, and caught the seed before it hit his wound, which healed up in an instant. He crushed the seed between his index finger and thumb, and grinned evilly.

"That was your last shot boy, and your vision is beginning to dim…pretty soon you will go to the netherworld…" Shiren growled, and he ran full speed at Kurama, hit his injured arm, and tossed him at Rogue.

The pain of being struck on his injured arm was so intense; Kurama passed out while he was in the air. Before he touched the ground, he was already passed out.

"Now…I think I'll feast on his and the girl's body to gain more power…" Shiren licked his lips, and walked over towards Kurama and Rogue.

Rogue opened her eyes, and she saw Kurama lying on the ground near her, not moving. Then she looked up to see Shiren leaning over her and him.

"I think I better kill you first girl…so your power won't work…" Shiren snarled, and he began to lick his teeth, "You and the demon boy will make a most satisfying meal…"

"Get away from them monster!" Tabitha yelled as she began hurling her strongest time bombs at Shiren, each exploding harmlessly on the demon's skin, "Take this, and that!"

Shiren growled, and began to walk towards Tabitha, "You're starting to get annoying girl…"

"I won't let you hurt my friends!" Tabitha screamed as she hurled more time bombs at Shiren, each leaving no effect after the last.

Shiren roared, making her drop a time bomb near herself. Tabitha was thrown back by her own attack, and Shiren blitzed her at super speed, back fisting her on the side of the head. She screamed in pain, and Kuwabara's eyes shot open.

"NO!" Kuwabara yelled, and he got up even though he was in extreme pain, "You bastard, you're a coward! Attacking people who are weaker and smaller than you! I am smaller, why don't you pick on me!"

"Kuwabara, are you crazy?" Evan asked, and Kuwabara continued to roar, and he grasped his training sword.

"Spirit Sword!" Kuwabara roared, and he charged Shiren.

Shiren didn't react quickly enough this time, and Kuwabara brought his blade down on the demon's back. The demon opened his mouth and roared in agony. Kuwabara kept slashing his back, not letting up. He wouldn't let Tabitha get hurt, he just couldn't, but each slash healed itself.

"BACK OFF!" Shiren roared, and he expanded his demonic aura and blew Kuwabara off, "I should have finished you off first, and you have no more Spirit Energy left!"

Kuwabara's blade immediately fizzled out, leaving the former gang leader virtually defenseless. He began panting hard, and Shiren hit his stomach with an uppercut. It through him into Bobby, who was trying to aim an ice blast at the demon.

"Now…you will all die! I've prolonged this too long!"

Upon hearing that, Keiko vanished and ran over to Lance, who was conscious again.

"Lance, I need your help," Keiko pleaded with him, reappearing before his eyes, "We can both hit him with out earth quake attacks."

"Are you crazy Keiko? I did all I could and he beat me down like nothing!" Lance told her.

"We can at least keep him shaken up. Now, we have to do this to save our friends," Keiko told him sternly, and he nodded in agreement, "I'll become invisible to launch mine, you launch yours from here."

"Gotcha," Lance nodded, and he pushed Kitty to the left, "This is going to be big, Kitty, you take the others to my jeep and drive away as fast as you can. We'll hold him off."

"Yeah, sure…" Kitty then kissed Lance on the cheek, "You be careful, don't let yourself get killed."

"I won't die so easily, no go!" Lance ordered Kitty, who ran towards the others, "Time to take it up a notch! Ready Keiko?"

"Ready!"

"Let it loose with everything you got!" Lance yelled, and he threw out his arms.

Kitty did the same, following his movements. The ground began to shake violently around Shiren; it was like a class 10 earthquake was being centered around the demon.

The shockwave was so intense; it knocked Shiren off his feet, and also gave away their location. Yusuke zeroed in on his friend's location, and began the homestretch towards the extortionist hideout.

"I'm close!" Yusuke told himself as he picked up his pace.

Shiren rose to his feet, enraged at this development. He through out his right arm at Lance, forming a fist and shooting it at him, and Avalanche was hit hard, and collapsed to the ground. Yusuke passed the jeep, took a quick glance at it and saw that it was still drive worthy, and then he ran off down the alley. He then found Keiko, and backhanded her just as Yusuke reached the battle site.

"KEIKO!" Yusuke yelled as he saw Keiko reappear right before everyone's eyes, and he ran to her. There was blood trickling out of her lip, and he bent down to her, "Please be alright Keiko…please be alright…"

Keiko coughed, and opened her eyes, "Y…Y-Yusuke…"

"Rest here…I'll handle this creep…" Yusuke told her, "You! Demon, how dare you hurt my friends, you son of a bitch!"

"Another hotshot…?" Shiren asked, and he felt Yusuke's Spirit Energy, 'This kid's power is incredible…almost overwhelming…who is he?"

Yusuke bore his teeth and yelled, running full speed at the demon. Spirit Energy gathered in his fists, and before Shiren could react, Yusuke began throwing punches at a rate faster than a machine gun. He focused on Shiren's head and torso, leaving impact marks on the demon's body. In just a quarter of a second, he had already unleashed around over 1000 punches!

He kept yelling angrily, his rage increasing his strength. Shiren stepped back as his body was pummeled by the assault, and he collapsed to the ground. Yusuke wasn't finished yet, he followed up by leaping into the air and dropping down with his fist in front of him. It glowed brightly, and he dropped it on the demons chest. The ground cratered deeply from the impact, and he kept laying on the attack. Feeling that the demon was dead, he back off, and leapt out of the 10 foot deep crater.

"Incredible…" everyone conscious gasped after witnessing Yusuke's rage.

Yusuke then turned around, and put his right index finger out. He felt that Shiren's body had stirred, moved on its own. Everyone then heard a loud roar, and Shiren leapt out of the crater.

"You fool, you thought I would be killed by such an assault?" Shiren roared, and he readied his own fist, "NOW DIE!"

Yusuke turned around right as the punch was thrown. He sidestepped it making it hit the pavement, and rose his hand and braced it with his opposite hand. It was glowing brightly, and it was pointed right at Shiren's head.

"Die…SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke roared as he shot a tremendous blast of Spirit Energy right at Shiren's head and torso.

The blast hit dead on, vaporizing Shiren's entire body. There was nothing left, not even a cell survived the blast. The bolt of Spirit Energy shot off into the sky, and there was no more Spirit Energy belonging to the demon. Shiren was dead.

"It's over…" Jean said conclusively.

"I guess he was also the source of the demonic insect too," Yusuke said, and went over to Keiko, "We have to get back to the Institute. It won't be long before the cops arrive to check out what my blast was, and they'll see the damage here."

"Right, let's all go home…" Jean said as everyone conscious went over to the injured, and picked them up.

To be continued…in Aftermath of Walk on the Wild Side….please read and review…


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